


its you, you're all I see

by Kt_fairy



Series: lesbians [1]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Do not repost, F/F, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Gay Panic, Genderswap, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Lesbians, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Sexism, Sex, Vaginal Fingering, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-01-16 10:44:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18519835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kt_fairy/pseuds/Kt_fairy
Summary: She took another, better, look at her then - at the strength in her hands that were slightly too big for her body, the delicate way she crossed her ankles and sucked on her bottom lip as she thundered through a bass riff -and three thoughts came to mind; one - it’d be great to not have some lumpy man hitting on her like all their previous bass players had. Two - this girl was going to be a fantastic bassist one day. And, three - she was the most unremarkable person Regina had ever met.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Let's go lesbians!! Let's go!!
> 
> May I introduce you to Regina 'Reggie' Taylor and Joan Deacon, rhythm section extraordinary!
> 
>  
> 
> \- Tags will update with each chapter.
> 
> I have a writing blog now. Hit me up [here](https://pianowrites.tumblr.com/) if you want.

 

 

 

 When Joan Deacon had shuffled into the music room at Imperial College, Reggie had thought she was a sixth former who'd gotten lost on a campus tour.

 

 She was slight and uncertain, voice so quiet Freddie had vaulted a desk just to catch her name.

 

 Reggie could still remember the look she had shared with Brian. How the despair of being reduced to this, a mouse on bass, had turned into open shock when the girl had started to play.

 

 It had been a bouncy bass riff from a disco song Reggie never caught the name of. But it was good, played with so much spark that Reggie had started to tap out a beat on her knees.

 

 She’d taken another, better, look at her then - at the strength in her hands that were slightly too big for her body, the delicate way she crossed her ankles and sucked on her bottom lip as she thundered through a bass riff - and three thoughts came to mind; 1) it’d be great to not have some lumpy man hitting on her like all their previous bass players had, 2) this girl was going to be a great bassist one day. And 3) she was the most unremarkable person Reggie had ever met.

 

 Joan, or Joanie as she soon became due to Freddie’s fondness for her, was pleasant in the way very young nineteen year old girls could to be. She was friendly enough, but not overly forward, which Reggie understood. Freddie was a force of nature, Brian was a stubborn git, and Reggie had never liked being told what to do. Their arguing had intimidated more far forceful people then their new bassist.

 

 Joanie would go where she was told and play what she needed to, and then would usually disappear. She came out with them sometimes, and looked like she was having fun, but nearly always left early, citing projects and homework or early morning lectures when she made her escape.

 

“I think we’ve scared her,” Freddie said, tipping his head back to blow a stream of smoke into the nights sky before handing the cigarette back to Reggie. "Brian's space talk, your massive gay-ness, and my _beauty_ have scared her."

 

“Has she said something to you?” 

 

“No...has she said anything to you?”

 

“She talks to you more than she talks to me.”

 

“Yes, but you’re a girl. Girl’s _talk.”_

 

 Reggie blew a cloud of smoke into Freddie’s face. “Don’t be sexist.”

 

“I’m not! I’m just saying. She’d probably feel more at home talking to you than me. Or Bri.”

 

“We’ll sit around braiding one another’s hair and have a sleepover!”

 

“I doubt she’d be prepared for your kind of sleepover.”

 

 Reggie snorted, tipping her head back to bark out a laugh. “Definitely not. She’s probably still a virgin.”

 

“Regina Taylor!” Freddie tutted, smacking her leg. “There’s nothing wrong with that! And I’d expect you to know it!”

 

 He was right, and Reggie said so, falling into a contemplative silence as she smoked her cigarette. “Are you going to ask her out?”

 

“No!”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because I have enough class to not jump at the first pretty girl I see. And she’s…” Freddie wafted a hand through the air. “...I like her, but not like _that_. She’s my sister. My child! My band child!”

 

“Oh my God. That’s going to be embarrassing when you end up shagging her,” Reggie teased, laughing when Freddie punched her arm.

 

“Why do you care about my love life all of a sudden! Butt the fuck out!”

 

 Reggie was still mostly sure that, despite Freddie’s protestations, he was going to end up asking Joan out. You didn’t make as much fuss over someone as he did over her if you didn’t fancy them a little bit. But this was Freddie, and he somehow managed to never take Joanie out on a date with such flair it was almost like he was making a point. Unless you counted the time he dragged Joanie around a bunch of clothing stalls as a date. Which, judging by the look on her face when they’d turned up at Reggie’s flat just as the street lights started to flicker on, really wasn’t the case.

 

“My feet hurt,” she’d muttered while Freddie had showered Brian in new clothes he’d found for him, looking so grumpy that Reggie had to fight down a smile.

 

“You want some tea, love?” Reggie offered, half out of her chair before Freddie grabbed hold of her. “No. Whatever you’ve got me, no. I get my own clothes.”

 

“Oh, shut up. Joanie, darling, show Reg what we got and _I’ll_ make you some tea for being so very patient with me all day.”

 

“Why do I have to be shown?” Reggie muttered as she picked up the shopping bag for Joanie, winking at her when she sent Reggie a thankful smile.

 

“Because, for some reason, I value your opinion.”

 

“What about me?” Brian spoke up from where he’d been judging Reggie’s latest LP purchases.

 

“She’s not going to get changed in front of you, is she?”

 

 Brian opened his mouth, eyes sliding to Joanie who had one eyebrow raised at him. “Oh yeah.”

 

 Freddie rolled his eyes in despair, muttering darkly to himself as he headed off to the little kitchen. Reggie didn’t notice though, too busy trying not to smile as she watched Joanie stifle a giggle.

 

 Reggie had a Japonesque screen (a prized possession) cordoning off the corner of her bedroom. She always said it was to bring a little glamour to the bedroom of her dull little basement flat, but really it was somewhere to hide her dirty washing. Reggie cleared all that out while Joanie laid out her new stage clothes, offering the screen to her as some sort of mini changing room.

 

 She wasn’t going to _look._ Reggie he was able to control herself around women. And Joanie had never seemed to be worried that Reggie would check her out or make a move or anything like that. In fact she had taken the vaguely open secret of Reggie being a lesbian in her stride, which wasn’t really that much of a surprise -  Reggie had noticed that for all her shyness, Joanie never seemed to be really bothered by anything.

 

 Reggie took the tea from Freddie when he poked his head around the door and shooed him away when he started to fuss. She lounged on her bed, spinning her battered lighter through her fingers as she passed judgement on the various pieces of satin that had been scrounged up from all over London. Joanie looked a little uncertain at first, muttering something about jeans that Reggie didn’t quite catch, but she soon relaxed into it. Eventually even looking like she was having some fun.

 

 Reggie wasn’t going to claim that was all because of the quips she thought up to make Joanie laugh while she was changing, but she wasn’t above accepting an honourable mention. She just wanted Joanie to feel comfortable, she supposed. In the band, and around her.

 

“You know how Freddie loves the attention of the crowd?” Joanie’s muffled voice called as she tried on her last outfit.

 

“Do I ever.”

 

 Joanie stepped out into the room, hand on her hip as she pointed to the artful scrap of black satin covering her torso, “No-one’s going to be looking at him if I’ve got my tits out, are they?”

 

 That was not only the most Reggie had ever head Joanie say at once, but it was also the funniest just _because_ it had been so unexpected. Reggie flopped back on her bed laughing, rolling her head to one side to catch Joanie smiling at her.

 

 That had stayed with her, that smile, and they way it lit up her soft grey eyes.

 

 Reggie had always liked girls who were more feminine that her more ‘tom boy’ (as snide teachers had always described her) self. But she had never really been one’s for girls like Joanie. One’s who behaved like they did just because that’s how women were expected to be. The kind who would let some half decent bloke fuck her, then marry her, and then ignore her as she brought up his kids. Reggie never gave them a second thought, but Joanie was different.

 

 It was probably because they were band mates, so they were forced to spend loads of time together. They were both in the rhythm section as well, so they had to pay a lot of attention to one another. And...and it was probably because, despite all her earlier misgivings and assumptions, that Reggie really did like her.

 

 Not just because she always giggled at Reggie’s jokes, no matter how bad they were. Or that she quietly encouraged Brian or Freddie when their artistic temperaments got the better of them. Or that she had fixed Reggie’s battered old radio for the price of a chocolate biscuit and a cup of tea.

 

 She was just Joanie, nothing more and nothing less, and Reggie couldn’t help loving that about her.

 

 

* ***** *

 

“Nervous?” Reggie asked, lighting a cigarette as she leant in the doorway Joanie was pacing in front of.

 

“What gave me away?” she muttered, a tremble in her voice as she wiped her hands on her skirt.

 

“Might have been you biting that thumb nail to nothing,” Reggie said, reaching out to grab her arm and still her. “You’ll make it bleed if you’re not careful.”

 

“Sorry.”

 

“We all get nervous,” Reggie glanced around the tiny dressing room. “Come on. We’ve got ten minutes, I’ll distract you,” she lead her past the sofa Freddie was standing on as he practised his moves, swiping the bottles of nail varnish from the table in front of Brian.

 

“You’re going to paint my nails?” Joanie asked sceptically, moving her bass into her lap as she sat down on a creaking chair opposite Reggie.

 

“Kill three birds with one stone,” Reggie said, blowing smoke towards the ceiling as she shook the bottles. “Keep you from wearing a hole in the floor, stop you from biting your nails, and…”, Reggie said as she laid one of Joanie’s hands on her leg, “...keep me in practice for colouring between the lines.”

 

 She smiled around her cigarette when Joanie laughed softly. Reggie went to open Brian’s white nail varnish, then dropped it into the top pocket of her shirt as she cracked open the black. “I’ll do alternate colours, yeah?”

 

“All right,” Joanie said softly, tucking her hair behind her ear as Reggie started on her nails. “You’re not a nail varnish type of person.”

 

 Reggie snorted at what sounded like the most heavy handed descriptor of lesbian she had heard in a while, and nodded. “Drumming fucks your hands up. Gotta keep my nails short anyway, and they were always chipping,” she put Joanie’s other hand on her leg. “Doesn’t mean I don’t rock a sexy red when I want.”

 

“Once in a blue moon, she means,” Freddie put in, then pouted. “You never paint my nails, Reg!”

 

“Girls only offer,” Reggie shot back, pushing her hair back off her face as she pulled out the white. “I don’t mind painting them actually. It’s relaxing. I used to paint my sister’s all the time, and my friends at uni.”

 

“I never really...playing guitar, and fiddling about with tv’s and building radios. I could never keep it nice, or remember to, you know. And then my old headmistress...”

 

“One of those “only loose women paint their nails” old bats?” Reggie asked as she stubbed out her cigarette.

 

 Joanie smiled. “Yeah.”

 

“Well,” Reggie picked up Joanie’s hand and blew on her nails. “You’re in a rock band with two dangerously sexy men,” she nodded at Brian who was holding his hair out of the way so he could listen to the tuning of his guitar, and Freddie who almost fell off the sofa while trying to bend back as far as he could. “And you’ve just got your nails painted. She’ll have vapours.”

 

 Joanie giggled a little helplessly, blushing as Reggie picked up her other hand to blow on those nails. “Can’t say I wasn’t warned.”

 

 Reggie grinned, catching Joanie’s bright eyes and found herself winking. It didn't seem like she knew where to look for a moment, and then she smiled shyly at Reggie.

 

“There,” Reggie sat back to look at her work. “Not my best attempt, but I’ll do better next time.”

 

“Next time?”

 

“Yeah. You can’t keep your nails painted, I have nothing better to do before we go on than smoke. Not like it’s a chore.” she shrugged, pushing aside the thought that it was no hardship because Joanie’s hands were so nice.

 

“Thank you,” Joanie smiled as their three minute call came through the door.

 

“You,” Reggie patted Joanie on the leg and stood, pulling her sticks out of her back pocket and twirling them through her fingers. “Are most welcome.”

 

 Brian lead them up to the side of the little stage, ignoring Freddie who was doing his own version of stretching and Reggie who was bouncing on the balls of her feet. There was a woman in the wings who was looking Reggie over, so Reggie gave her a nod, smirking to herself when the woman smiled and looked away.

 

 She glanced back at Joanie just before they went on, trying to catch her eye but her gaze was set firmly on stage.

 

 Her jaw was set with more determination than Reggie had thought possible from her, hands resting on her bass like they were meant to be there. Reggie smiled to herself and turned to face front as Freddie strode on stage. They were going to be _great_.

 

 

* ***** *

“Hey! Hey! Freddie!”

 

“Darling no.”

 

“Freddie you said!”

 

“I simply cannot face that dam monkey movie again.”

 

“It is not!” Reggie spluttered. “A fucking MONKEY MOVIE!”

 

“It’s a space movie, Fred,” Brian agreed, shaking his head when Reggie turned a hopeful look on him. “It’s also about three bloody hours long.”

 

“Two hours and forty-five minutes. _Actually!”_

 

 Joanie, who had been quietly flicking through her coursework when Freddie and Reggie had come bouncing in, suddenly perked up. “2001 A Space Odyssey?”

 

 Reggie whirled around. “Yes! It’s showing at the cinema…”

 

“Are you going to go?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Can I come?”

 

“Yes!” Reggie gasped, practically throwing herself across the room to skid onto the sagging sofa Joanie was sitting on. “You like sci-fi!”

 

“Me and my little sister used to watch Dr.Who every week.”

 

“ _Doctor…”_ Reggie squeaked, almost beside herself that they’d known one another for _months_ and Dr.Who had never come up. “Did you watch Star Trek?”

 

“Around my school exams I did. Have you ever seen _Forbidden_ …”

 

“... _Planet_? Yes! Last year,” Reggie jumped up so she could sit back down facing Joanie. “H.G.Wells?”

 

“My English teacher,” Joanie said as she flopped back against the cushions. “Gave me her copy of _First Men on the Moon_ and I read it until the cover fell off.”

 

 Reggie grabbed her arm. “How disappointed were you when they landed on the moon and there was no weird bug men?”

 

“Is that why you stayed up and watched the moon landing with me?” Brian sighed with a melancholy strum of his guitar. “To see if there were ‘bug men’?”

 

“No. It was a landmark of human endeavour and something you’re passionate about,” she said airily. “That’s why I stayed up with you.”

 

“Can we _please_ ,” Freddie sighed as he draped himself over the back of the sofa, trailing his fingers through the back of Joanie’s hair. “Get this band meeting started before she starts going _on_ about Metropolis.”

 

“It’s a classic!”

 

“It has a sexy lady Robot in it,” Freddie accused.

 

“Isn’t that what makes it a classic?” Joanie said. “That something so perfectly made does something terrible that all imperfect humans are, you know, capable of?”

 

“Yes! Exactly! And the fallibility of our civilisation when presented with a pretty face, and especially a female one…”

 

“Oh my GOD!” Freddie yelled as he rolled off the back of the sofa. “ _THERE’S TWO OF THEM!”_

 

“Tough shit, Mercury,” Reggie called. “We’re friends for life now.”

 

“Yeah,” Joanie agreed, a big smile on her face as she peered over the back of sofa at Freddie. “You’ll never be rid of us, and our space talk.”

 

“At least Brian talks about real space.”

 

“Science fiction often becomes science fact,” Brian said sagely.

 

“Oh no you _don’t,”_ Freddie spat, leaping to his feet.

 

“It’s true, Freddie!”

 

“You encourage them and they’ll join forces and make us do a whole fucking robot concept _thing_.”

 

“That is an idea,” Reggie said, smiling at Joanie’s helpless laughter when Freddie threw a cushion at her.

 

“We’re calling this band meeting to order before they run off to share their fucking collection of science fiction novels!”

 

“Why do you hate our love!”

 

“Because!” Freddie declared, and then dramatically collapsed onto the both of them, almost whacking Reggie in the face with his arm. “You’re going to become best friends without me!”

 

“How could you ever not be the centre of our lives?”

 

“Now you’re patronising me!”

 

“We love you Freddie, don’t worry,” Joanie said with such honest, sweet earnestness it snapped Freddie out of his dramatics.

 

“I know, my dear. And I love you both,” he pressed a kiss to his fingers and tapped them both on the face. “And Brian. Brian, darling. Come here and join the pile!”

 

“Shouldn’t we be on the bottom, not the girls?” Brian pointed out as he stood and came over to them.

 

“What you do in your private life is your concern, dear,” Freddie teased, grinning when Brian went bright red. “Don’t be such a gentlemen! They don’t need it. They’re our booming rhythm section!!” Freddie grabbed Brian and he sat down on the other side of Joanie before he got dragged down on top of them all. “They’re going to carry us to stardom!”

 

“Does that get mean we get more money?” Reggie asked.

 

“Sorry dear, I didn’t quite catch that. _So..._ our next gig…”

 

 

* ***** * 

 

“Stop fucking staring!” Reggie spat, glaring at Brian in the dingy, cracked mirror she was trying to get ready in front of.

 

“I’m not doing anything!”

 

 Brian had never looked at Reggie twice after she’d got in his face in an Imperial College bathroom and told him “I’m a dyke”. Which had been a nice change. Men usually thought their magic dick could cure being a lesbian, but he had let it be and tried to be supportive in his own way. Even allowing himself to be pulled into being a wingman for Reggie once, which was a weird experience for all involved.

 

 Brian was a good, decent man; he was smart and accepting and weirdly compelling on stage. But that didn’t mean he got to sneak glances at Joanie’s back while she was changing.

 

 Reggie opened her mouth to tell him just that, but then her gaze slipped to Joanie who’d casually glanced back at Brian before going back to tying up her dress. Thing. Freddie had made it. It looked...nice. And Joanie’s tit’s, which as predicted had drawn a lot of attention at her first gig, were safely covered.

 

 She was always nervous about going on stage, she didn’t need to be made to feel awkward by Brian’s wondering eye as well.

 

“You’re putting me off doing my hair,” Reggie sniffed, fighting down a smile when Joanie giggled. She looked over her shoulder to send Brian a forceful look that she hoped made it very clear this sort of thing was not to be tolerated. And if he hadn’t known he’d been looking, well, it was always good to keep him on his toes.

 

“Oh…” Brian looked puzzled for a moment. “Well, far be it from me to put off a master!” Brian did an exaggerated bow, looking secretly pleased when Joanie laughed.

 

“Come on,” Reggie sighed as she stood, patting Joanie on the arm. “Let’s do you.”

 

 Joanie plonked herself down on the edge of the stool, absentmindedly tugging at her tights. “I think a buzzcut tonight, don’t you?” She said with a completely serious face, eye’s twinkling when Freddie squawked.

 

“ _Darling_ do not even THINK...Regina would do it as well. The bitch!”

 

“You know me Fred,” she said as she raked her fingers through Joanie’s thick brown hair. “I always give the ladies what they want.”

 

“Christ, don’t we know it,” Brian muttered. “Scaled any buildings lately?”

 

“It was romantic!”

 

“It was an all girl’s dorm! You could’ve used the stairs!”

 

 Reggie shot a smile over her shoulder. “I sweat for my results,” she drawled with a waggle of her eyebrows.

 

 Brian and Freddie’s laughter echoed around the tiny dressing room, but Joanie’s silence rang the loudest. Reggie let her hands drop from her hair as she turned to look at Joanie in the mirror. Their eyes met for a second before Joanie looked away sharply, seemed to notice what she’d done, and then glanced back.

 

 She hadn’t known. Reggie had thought...she didn’t shout it around that she was gay, no-one did who didn’t want to risk getting beaten up, but she wasn’t hiding it either. And especially not around her friends. With how easily Reggie picked up girls people usually guessed long before she had to tell them, and Reggie had _thought_ , like an idiot, that Joanie would have worked it out as well.

 

 The girl hadn’t even been to a pub until she’d joined the band, of course she wouldn’t _have guessed Reggie was a fucking lesbian!_ She probably barely knew what one was!

 

 Reggie didn’t know what to do. She didn’t even know if Joanie would want her touching her, and then got angry at the thought of being rejected like that. Just because she liked girls didn’t mean she fancied all of them. Or couldn’t fucking control herself. The fucking _vanity_ of it, to just assume that being a woman was enough to make you irresistible to her!

 

“You do drum rather hard,” Joanie broke Reggie out of her thoughts, sounding as painfully awkward as she looked when Reggie blinked at her.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Wh…” Joanie blushed. “It’s how you...why you get so sweaty. All that - all that banging.”

 

 There was a drawn out silence as they stared at one another's reflections. It was a clumsy, stupid, and pretty terrible innuendo, but it wasn’t Joanie pulling away or spitting accusations like other girls had when they found out. It was acceptance, and a soft, hopeful glimmer in her pale eyes.

 

 Reggie smiled, shaking her head at the joke that Freddie, quite generously, laughed at it.

 

“You got the spirit of it, Deaky. Don’t worry!”

 

 Joanie twisted to poke her tongue out at Freddie, obediently turning back when Reggie pushed her shoulder. “Oi, do you want me to do your hair or not?”

 

“Sorry,” Joanie murmured, giving Reggie a tight lipped smile before falling quiet. Which wasn’t unusual for her, but Reggie wanted nothing more than to talk right now. She wanted to tell her outright, to look Joanie in the eye to see if she was just being polite and unobtrusive and _Joanie_ , or if she _really_ didn’t mind.

 

Which, Reggie thought as she backcombed her hair, would just be Joanie being Joanie anyway.

 

 

* ***** *

 

“So, umm…” Joanie said quietly as she stood by the end of her bed, both hands twisting the strap of her overnight bag.

 

 Reggie flopped down onto her mattress with a sigh. Joanie had been as fine as she ever was before a gig, and was her usual quiet, happy self while they had a drink in the van afterwards. It was only as they stomped up the stairs of their hotel that Joanie started to act differently - the irony not lost on Reggie that the first sign that something was up was Joanie's silence where usually she would be rabbiting on about the quality of the venue’s sound board or how to get more out of Brian’s amp.

 

 Reggie wasn’t surprised that this was where the hiccup would come. They had shared a room a few times by now, but that was when Joanie had thought she was straight.

 

“Yes, Jo?” Reggie promoted, wanting to get this over with.

 

“I just wanted to say that...I thought you never, you know, brought blokes back because of, well, me. That they’d think they were getting me as well or something. I...if you want to bring pe - girls back, then...then that’s different. I know it shouldn’t be different but...that doesn’t matter. If you want to bring girls back then I’ll get out of your way if you want?”

 

“I’m not kicking you out of the room, Deaky!” Reggie scoffed. She was somewhere between amused that despite Freddie’s fussing Joanie had picked up on blokes trying to get both her and Reggie into bed, and honestly a little surprised that she wasn’t about to be read the riot act about keeping her eyes and her hands to herself.

 

“No. It’s fine.”

 

“Deaky," Reggie sighed. "I wasn’t hiding this from you. I...thought you knew.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“So If I’d wanted to shag a girl I would have just brought her back, okay.”

 

 Joanie went to bite her thumbnail and then snatched her hand away, smoothing it over her checked skirt before shooting Reggie a sly smile. “Walking in on that wouldn’t have left me in any doubt.”

 

 Reggie covered her face as a wave of relief washed over her, the weight of worry she had been carrying about in her stomach dissolving into nothing as she burst out laughing. “God, I was so worried you were going to hate me.”

 

“What! Why?”

 

“That I didn’t tell you I fancied girls. I just assumed...Urgh. I should have told you and not let you get changed in front of me. I was never pervy about it, by the way! I like tit’s as much as the next person but…”

 

“Not mine?”

 

“There’s no way I can answer that, and you know it!”

 

“I know,” Joanie sighed, the bed dipping ever so slightly as she flung herself down next to Reggie with a waft of gentle flowery perfume. “I’m glad you never told me before, I think.”

 

Reggie pulled her hand from over her eyes to peer at her. “Yeah?”

 

“If you’d told me before we were best friends then I might not have let myself get this close to you. And now I _know_ you, I know that...that none of those things people say are true…”

 

“That I’m out to make you gay and steal your virtue?”

 

“It’s so stupid,” she sighed, continuing to talk about how she’d never really given ‘all that’ much thought, but being gay didn’t seem so terrible and Reggie was really great. Reggie wasn't really listening, instead finding herself a little caught up on something else Joanie had said.

 

“Best friends?”

 

“I...That wasn’t very rock and roll was it? Sorry…”

 

“No. No. That’s good. I didn’t...Yeah,” Reggie stuck her hand in her shirt and rubbed at her shoulder. “All my old best friends either don’t want anything to do with me or I ended up shagging them. Or they’re Freddie.”

 

“Well, I’m no Freddie Mercury,” Joanie grinned as she grabbed Reggie’s hand. “And I’m not going to make any promises about the other things.”

 

 Reggie snorted, giving Joanie’s hand a squeeze as she smiled at her. They’d had so many early mornings and late nights this week that Joanie must be exhausted, but Reggie thought she looked as fresh and bright as when she had first seen her. She had a smudge under her eye from not wiping her makeup off properly after the show, and Reggie almost, _almost_ , reached out to wipe it away.

 

 She didn’t get to worry about why she’d held back from doing that because, as if she had sensed what Reggie was thinking, Joanie yawned. It wasn’t particularly cute - or more cute than Joanie seemed to be by default - but when she pressed her pale cheek into a swathe of her still stamp hair, blinking tiredly at Reggie, she found that she was completely charmed by her.

 

“It may be how tired I am, and the wine catching up with me. But can I ask something cheeky?”

 

“You can’t have my bed.”

 

“But it’s the more comfortable one!”

 

“Drummer’s privilege. Go on.”

 

 Joanie groaned, letting go of Reggie’s hand as she stretched out her torso and then her long legs. “Fine!” Joanie made a production of sitting up, groaning when she bent over and pull off her tights. She stretched again when she stood, going up onto her toes as she twisted her back one way and then the other before slouching down onto her heels.

 

“Bassists privilege is first go in the bathroom,” she declared, chucking her tights at Reggie who caught them one handed.

 

“These are mine now.”

 

“You’re welcome to them, I’ve stretched them out with my fat arse,” she muttered as she padded into the bathroom. She flicked the door closed behind her with a sway of the appendage in question, and Reggie found herself half sat up on her bed with Joanie’s still warm tights clutched in one hand, feeling burning hot all over.

 

 

* ***** *

 The familiar whining rev of a Vespa engine dragged Reggie into consciousness with a groan.

 

“What the fuck is that?” was muttered into the pillow next to her, and Reggie smiled as she remembered the fantastic sex she’d has last night.

 

 She rolled over and kissed a smooth, tanned shoulder, delving her hands under the covers to wrap around a warm waist. “My band mate. I have to go to practice.”

 

 Karen rolled over, pushing her dark hair off her face as she pulled Reggie down into a soft kiss that tasted faintly of cigarettes and pussy. “Tell him to come back in half an hour,” she murmured softly, trailing her fingers up and down Reggie’s side. “Or maybe make it an hour?”

 

“I can’t,” Reggie said, pressing one last kiss to her lips before rolling out of bed. “ _She_ will come in and get me if I’m not out in ten minutes.”

 

 Karen huffed, not bothering to hold the blankets over her chest as she sat up. “The bassist?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“She’s pretty,” Karen said as she lit two cigarettes and handed one to Reggie. “You could always invite her in?”

 

 Reggie shot her a look as she carefully laid Karen’s dress out over the rumpled sheets, dropping her bra on top of it. “I can’t find your knickers, borrow some of mine.”

 

“Okay. I get it. Pretty little thing is off limits,” Karen pulled her down into a lingering kiss, Reggie smiling into it when a soft hand cupped her breast, thumb brushing over her nipple.

 

“Stop, we really have to go.”

 

“We?”

 

“I’m not leaving you in my flat,” Reggie grinned as she dragged on a t-shirt. “You might steal all my shitty stuff.”

 

“There better be milk for you to make me some coffee!”

 

 They were out of her front door in nine minutes, jogging up the steps to the street just as Joanie was taking off her helmet ready to come down and get Reggie.

 

“Nine minutes! I’m practically early!” Reggie declared as she was tugging on her jacket, and then pulled up short.

 

 Joanie was just wearing her usual slightly tatty jumper and jeans, her wavy hair a mess from being under her helmet. But the sun light was catching in all the russet specks in her hair, and her jeans were showing off the strength in her long legs that were wrapped around the guitar case set in the footwell of her scooter. Both of those things, and Karen’s declaration that Joanie was pretty ringing in her ears, made Reggie feel strangely awkward to be standing between the two of them.

 

“Regina! Won’t you introduce us!”

 

 She looked over at Karen who was smiling at Joanie, and jumped into action. “Karen, this is Joani- _Joan_ , my bandmate!”

 

“Hi, Joan. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

 

“Oh. Oh, all awful things, I trust!” Joanie grinned, putting her helmet in her lap so she could accept the kiss on the cheek Karen gave her.

 

“Only about how wonderful you are at bass! I’m an old Biology friend of Reggie’s. From Uni.”

 

 The subtle quirk of Joanie’s eyebrow made it clear she hadn’t missed that not very thinly veiled implication, but she let it pass anyway. “Ah. It’s nice to meet you!”

 

“And you. But I won’t keep you. We all know how Brian hates lateness.”

 

 Reggie continued to feel a little embarrassed as everyone said their goodbyes, only feeling more awkward when Karen squeezed her bicep as she gave her a kiss goodbye.

 

“She’s beautiful,” Joanie observed once Karen was safely out of earshot. Reggie smiled to herself, watching Joanie peeking into her wing mirror to watch Karen walk down the street.

 

“She thinks you’re pretty,” Reggie shot back as she shoved the spare helmet on her head.

 

“She..." Joanie blushed. "When did she tell you that?”

 

“Not that long ago,” Reggie half lied, swinging onto the back of the scooter. “She’s seen us play before.”

 

“Oooh,” Joanie took one more look in her wing mirror, then at the mini parked in front of her, and then peered over her shoulder at Reggie. “Is she your girlfriend?”

 

“No. She’s...we get together sometimes”

 

Joanie raised an eyebrow as she looked Reggie up and down. “You should invite her backstage next time she comes to see us play.”

 

“I told you. She’s not my girlfriend.” Reggie shouted over the rattle of the engine as Joanie kicked the scooter in to life.

 

“It'd be nice to get to know her! She is your ‘ _friend_ ’ after all.”

 

“Why'd you fucking say it like that?”

 

“I didn't say it like anything!”

 

 Reggie sighed and linked her hands around Joanie's middle. “Yeah, okay.”

 

“All right,” Joanie muttered, reving the engine as she swerved out into the road.

 

“Besides,” Reggie shouted in Joanie’s ear when they were stopped at the traffic lights, feeling a tightness in her stomach that wasn’t from skipping breakfast. “Imagine what my life would be like if her and Freddie teamed up?”

 

 Joanie laughed, narrow shoulders shaking against Reggie's chest and making her wish she'd put a bra on this morning. “I'd have your back. Don't worry.”

 

 Reggie hopped off the back of the scooter when they parked around the back of the pub Queen were rehearsing in, shaking our her legs ready to do some drumming. She ran her hands through her hair to fluff it up after wearing a helmet, darting forward to pick up Joanie's bass when she went to stand.

 

“Oh you don’t…”

 

“I didn’t mean to snap at you earlier.”

 

“Snap at me?” Joanie asked as she followed Reggie through the back door of the pub, the both of them waving at the cheery barmaid who always seemed to be in a back room when Reggie was coming and going. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

 

“No,” Reggie turned at the foot of the stairs leading up to the function room the band was renting. “You’re my best mate. You really are,” she adjusted the strip of the guitar case over her shoulder. “I’m so used to people... Lesbian’s don’t really exist to a lot of people, you know? It’s a phase or we haven’t found the right man yet, or are _confused_. So people sneer at it, sometimes.”

 

Joanie stepped closer, a little frown pulling at her brows as she grabbed onto Reggie’s sleeve. “I didn’t mean to...”

 

“Deaky…” she sighed as she looked at her sweet, upturned face, bottom lip already pulled between her teeth as she gnawed at it instead of her nails. “You didn’t do anything. I’m telling you because I know you’ll try and understand.”

 

 Grey eyes flicked over Reggie’s face as she nodded slowly. “Of course.”

 

“Okay,” Reggie huffed, turning to start up the creaky staircase. “I also don’t invite Karen backstage because I don’t want you lot all playing cupid.”

 

Joanie laughed. “How can I play cupid when I’m always single?”

 

 Reggie paused to let Joanie catch up, and then linked their arms together as they stomped up the rest of the stairs. “Someone will be worthy of you one day, mate. Don’t you worry.”

 

“Maybe.”

 

 Reggie stopped them in the tiny stretch of dingy hallway, the sounds of Brian fiddling about with his guitar wafting gently through the door. “You, Joanie,” Reggie said gently as she cupped her face in her hands. “Are funny, and intelligent, and so very lovely. Anyone you chose to give the time of day to would be the luckiest person in the world,” her gaze dropped down and away in what Reggie assumed was embarrassment, so she brushed her thumbs over the flush of pink on her cheeks until Joanie looked at her again. “And I’ll be the one to make sure he knows it.”

 

“You assume they’d give me the time of day,” Joanie said softly.

 

“Well if they don’t, then they don’t deserve you,” Reggie declared, missing the pinched look on Joanie’s face as she slung her arm around her narrow shoulders. “Come on. Let’s knock this rehearsal out of the park and then I can buy you a drink.”

 

“Have you eaten?”

 

“...I will find food, we will knock this rehearsal out of the park, and _then_ I can buy you a drink.”

 

 

* ***** *

 

“Okay, so,” Freddie leant over the table to yell over the thumping music. “After much discussion,” - he had been whispering with Joanie for a few minutes now, oblivious to Reggie watching them while she spun her beer around and around on the tabletop. Freddie had said he wasn’t interested in Joanie, and Joanie only ever looked at him like an adored older brother, but sometimes they sat too close together, or Freddie was overly free with his affections. Reggie wasn’t sure what that meant, but for some reason she found she didn’t like it all that much - “Deaky and I have decided we should all dance!”

 

“Yeah!” Joanie nodded, fingers already tapping out the beat on the table top. Her face could barely contain her excited grin that was so infectious even Reggie, who was still under a bit of a dark cloud, found herself ready to get up and follow her onto the dance floor.

 

“And darling,” Freddie said, reaching over to touch Reggie’s arm. “You’ll be with me, okay?”

 

“Blokes keep trying to chat her up,” Brain explained at Joanie’s puzzled look. “So we put them off for her.”

 

“Oh I dunno, Bri,” Joanie said with a wink that she had definitely picked up from Freddie. “Face like yours might just encourage them.”

 

 Brian looked so startled and flattered by that Reggie threw her arm around him and landed a smacking kiss on his cheek. “To the prettiest astrophysicist!” She yelled, waving her beer in the air, Freddie and Joanie echoing it back so loudly Brian begged them to stop.

 

 Their raucousness followed them on to the dance floor. Freddie was singing along so loudly he almost drowned out the music playing as he shimmied at Reggie who was jumping around to the beat while doing her best to sing as loud as Freddie. Joanie was dancing with far more vigour and, frankly, talent, than Reggie had expected, clearing a little space around them with the energy of her movements. She was clearly having a blast, which Reggie found almost as delightful as her earnest attempts to get Brian, who was all arms and legs, to move them to the beat.

 

 He got it eventually, face scrunched in concentration as he copied what was obviously easy dance steps for Joanie. Freddie and Reggie immediately went to dance around him, laughing when Brian swore at them when they started to screech along to the guitar solos.

 

 It was a small-ish disco, and a crowded Friday night, so it was only a matter of time before Brian got bumped into Joanie, who staggered back against Freddie. He caught her around the waist with a laugh, using his free hand to steady Brian who, Reggie noticed, had tried to not touch Joanie in the pile up. He whispered something to her that Reggie was never going to hear over the music, Joanie’s reaction being overshadowed by Freddie yelling, “What _will_ people say! Me sandwiched between my two beautiful bandmates. And Regina!”

 

“We’d be nothing without our eye candy,” Reggie shot back, grinning when Freddie laughed at the insult.

 

 She ended up dancing with Joanie. Brian and Freddie were somewhere around them, she was vaguely sure of that, but her attention was all on Joanie. She had slowly crept out of her shell over the past few months, revealing little parts of herself here and there, but she was completely and wonderfully alive right now.

 

 All of her awkwardness was gone. She wasn’t shy or retiring or nervous of the crowd, she as having fun, and it glowed out of her with every toss of her head and twist of fabric as her body moved under her star patterned dress. Her face was flushed in a way that was bordering on unattractive, and her hair that wasn’t falling in beautiful waves over her shoulders sticking to her forehead and neck. Reggie was enough of a lady to not follow the strip of pale, glistening skin from the base of her throat all the way down to where she had undone the first two buttons of her dress, but she found it a bit of a struggle.

 

 Joanie planted the heel of her platform almost between Reggie’s feet and span, the flare of her skirt brushing against Reggie’s thighs before she sagged against her. She leant back against Reggie’s chest for the time it took to take in two panted breaths, but they felt like a lifetime.

 

 Bass guitars were heavy, but Joanie lugged hers around the stage like it was nothing. Her narrow shoulders were stronger than they looked, so were her arms, and her finger’s...Reggie was far too gay not to notice how easily they dealt with thick bass strings or delicate electronics. Her long leg’s were, Reggie now realised, toned from being able to dance for hours in platforms, and Reggie had never minded a bum that was a little rounder than was fashionable.

 

 Joanie tipped her head back to smile at Reggie, her breath coming out as a laugh when she grabbed the hand Reggie didn’t even realise she had put on her waist and stepped away. Reggie found she missed the heat pouring off her even though it was boiling on the dance floor. Found her heart thudding in her chest like she’d just played a set when Joanie pulled her into her side and then spun Reggie back out like they were dancing a Tango or something.

 

Oh fuck.

 

Reggie was...

 

_Oh God_.

 

Reggie had only gone and...

 

_Shit._

 

Reggie had only gone and fallen for her.

 

_Oh_ **_Fuck_** **.**

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -"sixth form" is the last two years of secondary (high) school in the UK  
> -'tom boy' is the era appropriate(?) version of both "soft butch" and "this girl is obvs a lesbian". I guess  
> -Reggie uses 'dyke' because how you gonna insult her with it if she uses it first.
> 
> Reggie pretty much just dresses like Roger did in the early 70's, and has hair like him, and has his smokey voice. Joanie is all blouses tucked in to high waisted jeans, blouses tucked in to high waisted knee length skirts, knee length dresses, maxi dresses. But she still wear's _platforms_ all the dam TIME. HELL YEAH.
> 
> Update schedule might be a little whacky as I'm away next weekend, but I will try to get a chpt out a week, as this is all basically written.


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

 Reggie woke, not for the first time after a night out, with her face sticking to her sagging sofa cushion with drool.

 

 She peeled her cheek off the slightly tatty fabric and pushed herself up onto her elbows, letting her head drop between her shoulders when a tugging pain shot up her neck. “Fuck sake.”

 

 The sentiment was echoed by the pile of hair and blankets on the floor that looked slightly more like Brian after Reggie blinked at it. She ran her hand over her face, and then down to press her fingers into the side of her neck to try and rub out the sore spot.

 

 When that didn’t work Reggie flopped back down onto the sofa, content to just become a part of it for the foreseeable future. Her bladder had something to say about that, it had been what woke her up after all, and she left it until the last minute before hauling herself upright.

 

“Fuck sake,” she muttered again, stepping over what was probably Brian who remained silent this time. Reggie considered poking him with her foot to check he was alive, but thought better of it. After drinking six pints of Watney’s it was best to not be wholly alive for a few hours the next morning.

 

 She must have sat on the toilet for a good five minutes after she had peed. First she picked off the necklaces that had become stuck to her chest while she slept, then tried to untangle her hair, and then smoked a cigarette with not much of anything going through her head. Sometimes the morning after the night before needed a moment of silent contemplation while staring at a cracked wall tile.

 

 It was as she was peering at herself in the mirror while she brushed her teeth, stretching her neck to try and ease the crook in it, that Reggie noticed the smudge of pink on her cheek. She rubbed at it, thinking it was a mark from how she had been sleeping. When the pink came away on her fingers she remembered why she had been sprawled out on the sofa.

 

 Joanie, more tired that drunk, leaning against Freddie as he lead them all down to Reggie’s flat. Joanie quietly worried about Brian sleeping on the floor as she staggered out of her shoes. Joanie looking so sleepy when she wished Freddie goodnight as he ran off to join his friend who was waiting in the taxi. Joanie’s gentle protests when Reggie made her take her bed. Joanie kissing her cheek before collapsing onto the bed that had groaned in protest.

 

 Before last night Reggie would have shoved her over and passed out right next to her. Give it a couple of weeks and she was sure she’d be back to doing that, but right now…

 

 A dip under a cold shower to clear her head and wash off last night was what was needed now. And a cup of tea.

 

 The pile on the floor that was once Brian May patted her leg gratefully when she placed a mug of tea by his head. She watched him struggle to take a sip, and then crept into her bedroom. There was a ruffle of blankets when the door opened, and she was met with a sleepy, “M’reg...Tea!” that, despite the awful twist that had been in her stomach since last night, made Reggie smile.

 

“Good morning to you too,” she said as she waited for Joanie haul herself up to sit against the headboard before handing the mug over.

 

“Thank you,” Joanie sighed as she pushed her hair out of her half closed eyes that were covered in the remnants of last night’s mascara. She held the mug in both hands as she took a sip, tipping her head back to give Reggie such a cheesy smile it made her twisting stomach feel like it was full of bubbles. “You’re amazing.”

 

“I am, yes,” Reggie shrugged, rocking back on her heels as she considered escaping. “It is common knowledge,” she said as she dropped down on the edge of the bed, letting the silence hang between them as she placed her own half empty mug on the floor. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Achy. And my leg hurts,” Joanie rubbed at the pillow creases on her cheek, then pulled a face at the smear of lipstick on her arm. “And like I should probably offer to wash your sheets. I feel like I was very sweaty last night.”

 

“Don’t worry, they’ve had worse on them,” Reggie teased, flopping down to lay alongside Joanie’s legs when she gave her a shove. “Really, you don’t need to. I’ve got into bed right after a gig before now, and you know how disgusting I am after them.”

 

“Only because you’re the best drummer on the circuit,” Joanie chided, knocking Reggie with her knee. “You don’t just sit here tapping out a beat like some do,” she brought the mug to her lips and then smiled. “I was going to say ‘just waiting to go pick up girls afterwards’ but…”

 

“Wow. _Wow_...not saying it’s not true, but _wow_. And after you spent a night in my bed!”

 

“I said you were the best...no-no-no!” Joanie squealed as Reggie grabbed her foot and searched around under the covers to tickle it. “No I’ll spill my tea! Reggie!”

 

“I thought you’d already sweated all over my bed?” She asked archly, flicking the bottom of Joanie’s foot.

 

“All right then, do it,” Joanie narrowed her eyes. “And I’ll see if I can’t get tea all over you as well!”

 

 Reggie believed she would do it to. Joanie could be a menace when she chose to be. “Okay. Truce,” Reggie muttered, keeping her hand on Joanie’s ankle as she relaxed onto her soft patchwork quilt.

 

 Worse things had happened to Reggie than thinking a girl was pretty - No, she’d always known Joanie was pretty...Worse things had happened than Reggie being _trusted_ by someone enough for them to open up like Joanie had with her. To be free and open and have fun in her company without an ounce of self-consciousness. Of course that was going to have an affect on her. It was, she thought as she rolled her head to the side to look at Joanie who was yawning into her tea, all perfectly natural to have a little crush after seeing how wonderfully bright and joyful Joanie had been last night.

 

 Sea green eyes flicked to meet her gaze, and Joanie crooked a smile when she found Reggie watching her. “Did you have fun last night?”

 

“I did actually,” Reggie said as she patted herself down for her cigarettes. “I don’t usually go out like that.”

 

“Brian said you don’t go dancing often.”

 

“Nah,” Reggie said in a puff of smoke. “Even with the Fred and Bri keeping blokes away it’s not really my thing...But then again I don’t usually have such a beautiful girl to dance with.”

 

 Joanie pretended to be flustered, exaggerating the flutter of her eyelids even as a very real blush crept over her cheeks. “I..” she started, sipped her tea, worked her jaw a little, and then took another noisy sip. “I think I prefer...you know, dancing with a girl. As well.”

 

 Reggie took a deep drag of her cigarette, smiling to herself. “I always knew you had good taste.”

 

 

***

 

"Oh there you are dear, I wondered when you'd be back," Freddie said, waving to another satisfied customer.

 

"I had to go all the way to the other side of the market to find someone who could give me change for a fiver. Can you believe it?"

 

"I can believe many things."

 

 Reggie paused with the key in the lock of the cash box and peered at him. "Why are you being weird?"

 

"Deaky dropped by on her way to tutor those two darling girls - I've never met them but they sound darling - and left us with a packet of custard creams."

 

"What? Where?" Freddie pointed to the chair at the back of the stall and Reggie picked them up. "Why?"

 

"A thank you for letting her use your bed on Friday night..." he said with a grin.

 

 Reggie looked down at the biscuits, then at Freddie. "You'd have given her your bed."

 

"I would. I'd have given you mine too. I _am_ a gentleman." Freddie said archly. "I don't think she'd have gone ten minuets out of her way to give me a packet of _my_ favourite biscuits, though," he shrugged and started neatening the clothes like he had made a point.

 

"She would've," Reggie muttered. She ran her fingers over the logo, charmed as always by how earnestly sweet Joanie could be, then opened the packet and shoved three biscuits in her mouth at once.

 

 

***

 

 The crack of a well connected slap was one of the most satisfying sounds in nature, Reggie thought. The unexpected volume of them always startled, and everyone loitering in the barely lit car park looked around for the source of it.

 

“You little bitch, what was that for!?”

 

“I’ll give you bitch!”

 

 Brian, who was stood nearest to Joanie, managed to grab her before she could go for the assistant manager of the theatre they had just played. Reggie was there next, stepping between Joanie and the bloke who Freddie made step back with his sheer presence.

 

“Do you _mind_!”

 

“Do I mind? She hit me!”

 

“And it was out of nowhere I’m sure.”

 

“I just asked her out for a drink!”

 

“Yeah,” Reggie sneered, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m sure that’s part of it.”

 

“I just said…”

 

“Look mate,” Brain said. “I can let her go if you like?”

 

 The bloke looked between them all, taking half a step back when he glanced at Freddie, and then turned away still holding his face.

 

“Oh my darling are you all right?” Freddie gushed, whole demeanour changing as he rushed to Joanie’s side. “What did he say to you? Did he touch you? Did he grab you, the fiend! OH Deaky I’m so sorry…!”

 

“I’m fine Freddie,” Joanie said softly as Brian slowly let go of her. “He didn’t grab me.”

 

“Bastard,” Reggie shot after the guy.

 

“What did he say you to, Deaky?”

 

“He did ask if I wanted a drink, and I said we might all be going out together in a bit and that he could come with us. And he said he’d rather it was just us, and I said no. So he agreed to come with us all and I said I’d sit with him so we could talk and then he said we could get a table together and I said no. And he asked if we had a gig tomorrow and I said I had an exam and he said something about how I was young and that he’d get me back by curfew. I was...and then he touched my back and I…” She glanced between Brian and Freddie who were sharing a look. “What?”

 

“Well…” Brian started, and then turned to look at Reggie. “He...It sounds like he was just asking you out for a drink?”

 

 Joanie scowled. “I said no and he kept on asking.”

 

“I know, dear,” Freddie said kindly, also glancing at Reggie. “But it...he may have thought you didn’t realise he was asking you out?”

 

“I knew!”

 

“Yes, but…”

 

“Jo. He definitely should have taken the hint, I don’t doubt that,” Reggie said. “But...it’s done now. But maybe you should have just let him come to have a drink with us. I know you don’t really date…” she fell silent, almost taking a step back from the cold anger in Joanie’s eyes.

 

“Right,” she said shortly, looking down at her hands.

 

“It’s not…”

 

“If you drop me off at the station I’ll make the last train back to Kensington.”

 

“ _Deaky_.”

 

“Deaky don’t!”

 

“I have an exam Tuesday morning. If you don’t want to take me to the station, I’ll take my bass and get the bus.”

 

“We’ll all go home,” Brian cut in before Freddie could protest further.

 

“What about your drinks?”

 

“No. We’ll all go. Your exams are more important than us lot going out.”

 

“Fine,” Joanie said shortly. “Thank you,” the van door slamming shut loudly behind her.

 

“Maybe that wasn’t the best time for a boys talk,” Freddie sighed.

 

“Don’t be patronising,” Reggie snapped, lighting a cigarette to try and warm the cold sweat she could feel on her back.

 

“And you weren’t!” Freddie hissed. “With your _I know you don’t date_ bullshit.”

 

“Maybe we can argue about this when we’ve all calmed down,” Brian said sagely, looked between the two of them, and then made a run for the drivers door. Freddie hurried after him, leaping up into the passenger seat before Reggie realised what they were doing.

 

“Cowards!” She hissed.

 

“Men!” Freddie shot back.

 

 Reggie climbed into the back of the van, glancing at Joanie’s eerily still profile through the darkness, and flicked her half smoked cigarette out of the door before closing it.

 

 The frosty mood hung heavy in the van despite Freddie and Brian talking quietly over the radio. Reggie looked at her hands, at her shoes, peered over her shoulder to check her kit was safely stored. She only dared glance at Joanie once they had driven through Westminster, hoping to see any thawing in her, but she only seemed more tightly wound than before.

 

“I’ve been on dates,” Joanie ground out as they got free of the traffic around Marble Arch. “I went on my first one when I was twelve. I might be shy, and boring, and a little plain, but I’m not fucking clueless.”

 

 Reggie was desperate, _desperate_ , to tell Joanie that she was so, so far from being plain. Or boring, or unremarkable - or any of the things she had first thought about her, really - in any way. But that was not what was wrong here, it was trivial compared to what Joanie was saying, so she kept quiet.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“I'm not like you, or Karen, or those two,” she pointed at the front seats. “But that doesn’t mean I have to take whatever I can get.”

 

“We didn’t mean that. You don’t...you know I don’t think that,” Reggie snapped. “If you said no, then...then that’s a no. It’s not the other person’s problem if you’re not interested in them.”

 

 Joanie reeled back like Reggie had just insulted her instead of agreeing with her. Several expressions flashed across her face before she snapped her attention forward, eyeballing the back of Brian’s head as her leg’s fidgeted compulsively.

 

 Reggie tried a couple more times to talk to her, but Joanie remained stony silent until they pulled up outside her flat. She jumped out before the van had fully come to a stop, dragging her bass out of the back and grunting out a goodbye as she ran up the front steps.

 

“Shit,” Reggie hissed at herself, putting her head in her hands as Freddie made declarations about fighting to keep Joanie in the band. “ _Shit, shit, shit_.”

 

 

***

 

“What’s wrong sweetheart?” Karen asked, the clink of her shoes on the floor announcing her arrival just before her hands smoothed over Reggie’s shoulders.

 

“What makes you think something’s wrong?” Reggie muttered around the cigarette burning down between her lips.

 

“The fact I’ve known you for four years,” she sighed, setting her bag on the pub table as she sat down opposite her. “And that the only thing you ever do on a Monday is recover from the weekend.” Karen looked over Reggie's old jumper and ratty jeans, and frowned, “Christ what happened?”

 

“Joanie…”

 

“Ah.”

 

 Reggie groaned, letting her head drop into her hands. “I hate that this is an unsurprised ‘ah’ situation.”

 

“Did you get pissed and snog her?”

 

“I wish I had. I could explain that away by just being bloody stupid.” Reggie groaned, taking a drag on her cigarette. “Some bloke was a little too keen for her liking and...and we didn’t back her up like we should. And now…” Reggie rubbed at her eye. “She hates me.”

 

“I’m sure she doesn’t.”

 

“Everything I said hurt her. Everything. Even when I was agreeing with her! Joanie…I…” She began spinning a beer mat around on the tabletop. “I keep telling myself that Joanie’s so great so _of course_ I'd have a little crush, even though I know it isn't that. It's...’m such a bloody idiot.”

 

“Reg…”

 

“So you’ve worked out I fancy her. When?”

 

 Karen shrugged. “A while ago…” she sighed at the look on Reggie's face. “Okay, when I first met her. The way you clammed right up.”

 

“Oh fucking...shit!” Reggie said loudly enough to get a looks from the other people in the pub. “God knows who else knows!” She took a long drag on her cigarette. “I don’t want her to know. Not yet. I don’t want...want…”

 

“Want to be another gay who fell for their best friend?”

 

“Yeah!”

 

“So did you oversell this bloke to try and cover yourself?”

 

“I…”

 

“Please tell me you’re not trying to get over her by shoving her at men? You’ll hurt her and yourself. And I won’t be this sympathetic.”

 

“I don’t think I was. I don’t know.” Reggie sniffed, trying not to pout when Karen rested her chin on her bag so she could catch Reggie’s eye. “Thank you for coming and listening to me.”

 

“Like you haven’t let me cry on you about a girl,” Karen smiled gently, moving Reggie’s drink out of the way so she could lean in closer. “What I want to know is why you’re moping to me and not throwing yourself on her mercy?”

 

“She has an exam tomorrow. I’m not going to piss her off more by interrupting her revision.”

 

“Sensible,” Karen nodded. “Do you want me to butt in, or did you just want my sparkling personality to distract you?”

 

“I want you to stop me getting drunk and doing something stupid.”

 

“So you asked me to meet you at a pub?”

 

“That’s why I needed you to stop me,” Reggie joked weakly, smiling when Karen chuckled.

 

“When did you finally realise you fancied her?”

 

“Week ago. On a night out. Bloody hell,” Reggie stubbed out her cigarette and flopped back in her seat. “This isn’t about that. She’s my friend. Did you know she’s one of three girls in her electrical engineering course and she’s in the top five of every class? She’s amazing. And funny! And really...she’s shy but not timid. She’s not a pushover. And her eyes,” she reached for her drink, and then sighed, giving Karen a pleading look. “ _Karen_ …”

 

“I know. I know..”

 

“You know what’s even worse,” Reggie muttered. “She gave that bloke such a slap I was a bit turned on.”

 

 Karen tipped her head back and laughed, big and booming. It brought a smile to Reggie’s face, even though something deep inside her chest ached just a little that it wasn’t Deaky’s dry laughter disturbing everyone’s lunch right now.

 

 

***

 

 It was gearing up to be a sweltering day. Reggie had already steamed up her sunglasses once this morning, having to peel off her jacket and roll her sleeves up just from the half an hour walk to Chelsea College.

 

 Freddie had a vague recollection of Joanie’s exam starting at eleven, and had then practically chased Reggie out of Kensington Market when she had said she wanted to go and talk to her. “Go! Grovel! Promise money! Promise blood! Anything!”

 

 Reggie reclined on the sun warmed front steps of the college, peering up at the cloudless sky through her sunglasses as she waited for Joanie. She smoked cigarette after cigarette to calm her nerves, aggressively admiring the leafy trees dotted along the street to try and distract herself.

 

 A murmur of chatter from inside the building had her getting to her feet, leaning on the railing that lined the steps as a troop of overtired students meandered past her. She ignored the boys, and gave a cursory glance at the girl who looked back at her twice, but kept her eyes firmly on the double doors just in case Joanie slipped past. For someone as tall as she was, Joanie was very good at sneaking.

 

 Reggie needn’t have bothered. Joanie took one look at her and pulled up short, eyes widening even as she blinked into the sunlight. “Mind out, Deacon,” the boy who followed her out huffed not unkindly as she sidestepped her, “when Physic’s come out they’ll knock you over.”

 

“Sorry. I’ll see you later Alan.”

 

 He glanced at Reggie before smiling at Joanie again. “Bye Joan,” he called, running down the steps to catch up with a group of lads heading towards the Kings Road.

 

 Joanie sighed and moved to stand on the step above Reggie’s. “Hello.”

 

“Hi,” Reggie said, making a point of not asking about this _Alan_. “How was the exam?”

 

“Eh. It was all right.”

 

“So you smashed it.”

 

“I dunno, “Joanie shrugged, letting her bag fall off her shoulder to rest on her feet. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

 

“Nah, you smashed it. I know fuck all about Electrical stuff, but you’re like...like a bloody natural. A genius!”

 

“Yes, and you got into dentistry school!” Reggie waved that away with a sweep of her hand. “Just think, I could’ve got my teeth done for free.”

 

 Reggie looked over at Joanie who was showing off the gap in her teeth. “You have perfect teeth. Straight, clean, beautiful smile. There, check up for free.” Reggie declared, itching to grab a cigarette when Joanie flushed and looked away. “So...I’m really fucking sorry about Saturday. I was being patronising - well, we were all being bloody patronising. But the other two can apologise to you in their own time. You are my friend, and I mean that with all my heart. I’ve known the other two for fucking ages now, but you mean just as much to me as they do. Maybe a little more, because you’re my mate, you know. I know you, and I know you don’t overreact to stuff like this, I...”

 

“I shouldn’t have slapped him, I know. He was just being flirty.”

 

“Don’t second guess yourself because of us,” Reggie pulled out her cigarettes and gripped them tightly. “Would I rather you didn’t go around whacking people? Yes. But I wasn’t there, I didn’t see what happened. I confused your age and your...that you don’t _want_ to date with naivety. And I know you better than that.”

 

 Reggie glanced over at Joanie who was chewing on her lip as she stared down the road with an unreadable look on her face. “You were already forgiven. But thank you for saying all that anyway. I thought you’d all be angry at me. Slapping a guy who could book us again…”

 

“The only people who expect you to be nice to promoters and management are the wankers in promotion and management who think getting his dick sucked is part of a deal. Slap away my girl.”

 

 Joanie snorted, still staring down the road. “More fool them. I’d give a terrible blow job.”

 

“Can’t help you there,” Reggie laughed despite herself, and bumped their shoulders together. “We’re okay, right? ‘Cause I moped at Karen all yesterday at the mere thought of you being angry at me.”

 

 Joanie looked down at her feet as she scuffed them against the steps. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked at Reggie, lips twisting before giving her a tired smile. “For Karen’s sake, we’re okay.”

 

“Thank fuck. Rhythm section gotta stick together,” Reggie finally shook our a cigarette. “By the way,” she said, no longer able to hold back the thing that had been niggling at her for days. “You’re not plain.”

 

“What?”

 

“You said you were, and it really - you’re not. Not that that shit matters,” Reggie said as she lit her cigarette. “But take it from a huge lesbian, that you’re not,” she took a deep drag and exhaled it away from Joanie, being resolute in not looking at her.

 

“Flattery!” Joanie accused, a wobble audible in her voice. “I’ve already forgiven you.”

 

“Working up credit for next time we fall out over a song.”

 

 Joanie rolled her eyes and picked up her bag. She dropped down onto the same step Reggie was stood on, tapping the sole of her shoe against Reggie’s foot. “I have to go and tutor in a couple of hours, buy me a milkshake at the Wimpy and we’ll call it even next time.”

 

“I’ll do you one better,” Reggie hopped down the steps. “A milkshake as a bribe and a burger to refuel your massive brain so you can teach thirteen year olds algebra.”

 

“I suppose that’ll do,” Joanie shrugged, falling into step next to Reggie and linking their arms together.

 

 

***

 

 Reggie had no right being jealous. Firstly, because who Joanie decided to give her attention to was not her business. And secondly, because apart from a few glances (that yeah, okay, Reggie could understand) Brian hadn’t shown any interest in Joanie at all.

 

 She watched them chatter quietly to one another by the amps. Brian was doing that thing where he tried to make himself smaller than he was, turning his body towards the person he was talking to so they could better hear his softly spoken voice. They were probably discussing amp reverb or something technical, Joanie leaning her wrists on her bass as she blandly listened to what Brian was saying.

 

“A penny for your thoughts, dear?” Freddie said out of nowhere, making Reggie jump.

 

“I’m gonna put a bell on you!”

 

“Oooh, how kinky,” Freddie purred, turning to follow where Reggie had been looking. “I shouldn’t worry. They’re not one anothers type.”

 

“What?”

 

“Hmm? Oh their little talk. I doubt it’s setting up an assignation.”

 

“I wasn’t…” Reggie pursed her lips and tapped her drumsticks on the edge of her drum. “I wasn’t thinking that.”

 

“So that was simply a regular forlorn look on your face?”

 

 Reggie shot him a dirty look. “Don’t you have somewhere to fuck off to, Fred?”

 

“Stew in your own pining then,” Freddie huffed, turning smartly on his heel and heading over to the amps, slinging his arm around Joanie as he elbowed his way into their conversation.

 

 Reggie felt her face scrunch up and she smashed her ride cymbal in frustration. She hit it a couple of more times before taking it all out on her drum kit until her shoulders burnt and sweat was running down her temples.

 

 She didn’t feel that much better afterwards, just tired and wrung out and stupid. All she had to do was admit to Joanie that she’d developed a stupid crush (not quite the truth, not quite a lie) and then they could all go on with their lives.

 

 Reggie looked up when Joanie came to stand in front of her kit, long fingers carefully catching one of the cymbals that was still reverberating. “That sounded good,” she said, casting a critical eye over the kit and then Reggie. She opened her mouth, eyes do doubt catching on the disgusting pool of sweat that was making Reggie’s t-shirt stick to her chest, before meeting her gaze. “We should,” she swallowed. “We should use that. Come up with a rhythm together? One day?” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Brian and Freddie who were now in conference with one another. “Then those two can catch up with us.”

 

 The last thing Reggie should do right now was spend more time with Joanie. She needed to put some distance between them, get mostly over this, and then come clean. But she was a great, big sucker for her friends, always had been. And Joanie had become a massive weakness without Reggie even noticing. Sadness and disappointment, or any of those emotions really, just looked so wrong on her. She should be happy always, laughing and bright like she had been at that disco. Or when Reggie had shot down a bloke trying to chat her up and Joanie had almost snorted milkshake out of her nose. Or when she got at cheer during gigs. Or when she made a stupid joke that got a laugh. Or...fuck it.

 

“Show the boys up? Of course!” Reggie did a light roll on her drums. “Then we can take over the song writing. Get a keyboard, write our Metropolis inspired concept album.”

 

“Pink Floyd, we’re coming for you.”

 

“Who? I only know Cyber Queens.”

 

“That’s a terrible band name,” Joanie giggled.

 

“Suppose. We just have to accept that we’re a bunch of Queen’s.”

 

“Now you’re just asking for me to say ‘you called’ aren’t you?” Freddie declared as he swooped in to stand in the middle of the room.

 

“You Fred? Being predictable?” Brian grinned.

 

“I can become less predictable very easily, dear!”

 

Joanie smiled at Reggie as they began bickering, letting go of the cymbal as she went to plug in her bass. Reggie found herself looking at the line of her back and turned to her kit.

 

 It was almost as if that jolt of...of fear at the thought of Joanie hating her had turned a simmering interest into a full blown, burning want. She'd had Joanie on her mind since the disco, coming and going in the moment's where she had nothing else to think of, but now...

 

 Reggie frowned at no-one in particular and thundered into the solo for _Keep Yourself Alive._  Hopeing it would make everyone get on with this bloody rehearsal and give her something to think about that wasn’t bloody _Joanie_.

 

 

*** 

 

“... _I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes, I have to turn my head until my darkness goes_ …”

 

 Trust Mick fucking Jagger to mock her. Reggie glared at the record player in the corner of the shop, then glared at the sweet couple who had just asked if they could play a few records to decide which one they wanted. If only they’d been a group of shitty kids, then she could have told them to piss off.

 

 Reggie huffed and went back to flicking through the racks of records. She tried to keep her attention on the sleeves flashing past, but it was a bit difficult right now. Joanie was a little way a long going through the C’s, fingers moving to the bassline of the song as she tapped the heel of her platform boot perfectly to the beat.

 

 Reggie glanced over at the record player again, saw Brian looking at her, and turned back.

 

 She wasn't thinking about the way Joanie’s hair was tucked behind her ears, or how her bracelet was stuck halfway up her arm, or the way her bum looked in jeans when her hip was cocked.

 

 Reggie turned to move to another rack entirely, trying to keep Joanie out of her eyeline. That just put her in front of Freddie who was aggressively pretending that he didn't see the state Reggie was in. Which wasn't helping at all.

 

 Reggie took a deep breath, then another, cracking her knuckles as the Rolling Stones faded to nothing.

 

 She was behaving like this was her first, panicked crush on a pretty girl. She wasn't fourteen any more, battered and buffeted every summer by the all girls flocking to the beaches that were around every corner in Cornwall. She was an adult, had broken hearts and had her’s broken in return. Some nineteen year old shouldn’t be doing this to her!

 

“Hey, hey Reg! Look!”

 

“You have every Hendrix LP and EP already, Freddie.”

 

“Yeah, but…” Freddie muttered, a pleading look on his face.“ _Hendrix_.”

 

 Reggie caught Joanie's eye and they shared a smile, Joanie biting down a laugh when Reggie rolled her eyes.

 

 They'd be fine. Reggie would be fine. She liked Joanie far too much to let this tear either her or their friendship, or this band, apart.

 

 Reggie would go out and meet a girl who liked her back, Joanie would find a guy who met everyone’s approval, and they’d both be happy. One day she’d even tell Joanie about how much she’d fancied her once, and then they’d laugh about it.

 

 It would take some time, she didn’t doubt that. But Reggie would get over it.

 

 She’d be fine.

 

 

***

 

 Freddie had barely finished thanking the crowd before Reggie took off running.

 

 She darted past the amps and the next band waiting to go on, racing into their tiny dressing room so fast she almost fell over a chair. She grabbed her jacket and the keys to the van, doubling back to swipe one of the open bottles of wine off the side. Her shoes skidded on the linoleum floor as she hurried back down the corridor, wiping furiously at her eyes as she slipped past a few people smoking on the fire escape and slipped out into the warm night.

 

 The back of the van was dark and cramped, full of her drum kit that she’d brought along just in case. She huddled up by her bass drum, pulling out the cork with her teeth and raising the bottle to her lips.

 

 The last thing they had touched had been Joanie’s. She had no idea...Joanie had been playing her heart out, hair tossed over one shoulder as she thundered through her riffs, more power coming through her instrument than you’d think her slight body could contain. She was beautiful, and precise, and when they had darted off stage to grab a drink of water while Brian was tinkering about during his guitar solo, Reggie - swept up in the exhilaration of the crowd - had kissed her.

 

 She could still feel the warmth of her. Could taste the adrenaline on her breath and the smell of her sweat. The sharp intake of breath after she recovered from a moment of shock, the sound of her gasp when she had grabbed Reggie’s elbow.

 

 Reggie gulped down a mouthful of warm, and pretty shitty, red wine, and shuddered. She’d nearly bowled Freddie over trying to get back on stage after she had realised what she had done. Maybe Joanie hadn’t been able to look at her. Maybe she’d been glaring daggers at her for the rest of the set. Reggie didn’t know, she had played with single minded ferocity that left no room to think of anything else, counting down the beats until she could run off and hide.

 

 She rubbed at her eyes with trembling fingers, taking deep breaths to keep down the tears as she fumbled out a cigarette, almost dropping it three times. The flame on her lighter was overly bright in the darkness of the van, and after a couple of attempts she managed to get it to the tip of her cigarette.

 

 The door to the van opened slowly as she downed another disgusting mouthful of wine. She sat up, wiping her face on her sleeve and pressing the bottle into her thigh to try and keep herself under control.

 

“Oh Regina…” Freddie sighed softly, climbing straight into the back of the van and folding her up in his arms. “Oh darling.”

 

“What did she look like?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“After I...what did she look like?”

 

“A little shocked...a lot shocked, in fact. She marched right back on stage after you so I didn’t get to…”

 

“I’m so fucking stupid. Who does that? Who just kisses someone like that without even… fuck.” She kicked the wall of the van. “Fuck.”

 

“Okay. No more of that. That won’t help.”

 

“It’ll make me feel better though,” she put the cigarette back between her lips and tried to get up, but Freddie held her. “Look mate. I just dropped a fucking bomb on this band and one of the...the... _shes my friend and she trusts me and I did that_. If I want to throw my whole fucking drum kit out the back of this fucking van you’re not going to fucking stop me!”

 

“I’m sure such a scene would endear you to her greatly.”

 

“Why couldn’t I,” she took a shaky drag on her cigarette. “Fall in love with Karen. She’s as gay as me! We wear the same sized trousers… she has a cat!”

 

“You know as well as I that feelings don’t work that way.”

 

 Reggie sniffed, and raised the bottle to her lips again. “This wine is disgusting. Am I allowed to throw this bottle?”

 

“I shan’t deny you that.”

 

 Reggie rolled gracelessly onto her knees, about to crawl over to the doors when they were flung open.

 

 She stared at Joanie, back lit by the garish neon sign of the venue, who was staring right at her.

 

“Shatter glass if you need me!” Freddie called, and made the smoothest exit in the history of awkward moments.

 

“Joan, I…” Reggie started, falling quiet when Joanie hiked up her skirt and got into the back of the van, slamming the doors shut behind her.

 

“I never took you for someone who ran away,” she said accusingly.

 

 Reggie sighed, rolling the cigarette between her fingers before dropping it into the wine bottle with a hiss. “I like you so much I wish I could run away from it.”

 

“For how long?”

 

“The rest of my life.”

 

“No, you dramatic cow. How long have you liked me!”

 

“Ages…”

 

 Joanie was silent for what felt like a long, long time, but might have only been a matter of seconds. “I didn’t think you’d ever feel that way about me.”

 

“I know. I’m so sorry, you put all this understanding and trust in…”

 

“No. Not - I’m this…” she tangled her fingers together and tugged on them. “I’m not this urbane, beautiful, confident woman. Like you or Karen or…” she bit her lip and shuffled a little closer to Reggie. “I’ve liked you a lot for ages too.”

 

“You have!”

 

“I think you’re really attractive,” she muttered, straightening the collar of her blouse. “I like everything about you.”

 

 Reggie became aware she was gaping at Joanie and snapped her mouth shut. “Why didn’t you say anything!”

 

“Why didn’t you?”

 

“I didn’t know you liked girls like that!”

 

“Oh...that’s fair,” Joanie dropped her hand, tapping her fingernail against the top of the bottle. “I’m just…not really. I...like keeping under the radar. I thought you’d be really sweet about it if I told you. And kind. And you'd let me down gently, so I thought I’d save us both the embarrassment.”

 

“No. No! Joanie. You’re - God, you’re the…” Reggie cut herself off. Pushing down this bright, boundless hope in her chest for a moment. “Did you like it? When I kissed you?”

 

Joanie ducked her head. “Better than anytime a boy kissed me.”

 

 Reggie took a calming breath. She wouldn’t patronise Joanie by asking if this was misplaced affection for a friend. She wouldn’t _dare_. Joanie wasn’t someone to say these things lightly, but Reggie also knew how easily she could rip her heart out. “I’m not going to be an experiment for you, Joanie. Or - or a maybe. ‘Maybe I like women and I'll see what its like with Reggie’. You can go off and do that with someone else, I’ll even introduce you. But I can’t be a trial run for you. Not with how I feel.”

 

“Do people really do that?”

 

“Not very often. But it has happened to me.”

 

 Joanie didn’t look happy about that, which almost made Reggie smile. “I’ve never liked anyone like I like you. Ever. Ever. But I understand. I do.” She chewed on her lip, a flush racing over her face. “Come and, umm, get ice cream with me next week? In Kensington Gardens?”

 

“Wh - okay?”

 

“So we can both think about this properly. And so you know I’m serious about...well, I suppose from the kiss you gave me that you do want to date? Me?”

 

“YEs. More than date! Or - I mean…” they both laughed, unable to keep their eyes off one another.

 

“Maybe if you’re lucky,” Joanie shrugged with obviously false bravado, eyes flicking over Reggie’s face in the darkness of the van. She moved closer, cupping Reggie’s cheeks in her strong hands. “You weren’t crying, were you?”

 

“A bit.”

 

Joanie pressed a soft kiss to her cheek, lingering as Reggie took in a deep breath of her scent. She pulled back, looking at Reggie like she wanted to crawl into her lap and kiss her. It was a terrible idea, what with how churned up Reggie’s emotions were right now, but she would have let her. Would have dragged Joanie into her lap and kissed her until Freddie came back to see what was going on.

 

 Joanie pulled away, moving to sit against the far wall with her knee’s pulled up to her chest. They looked at one another, Joanie struggling to keep a smile off her face until she gave up and grinned at Reggie a little breathlessly. Reggie twirled the wine bottle in her hands to give them something to do, shaking her head to dislodge all thoughts of crawling over there and shoving her face between Joanie’s legs.

 

“If you hadn’t dropped your fag in there, we could have drowned our sorrows in how stupid we’ve been.”

 

“The ash might’ve improved it. Here, have a taste.”

 

“No!” Joanie laughed, pushing the bottle away when Reggie waved it at her.

 

“If you take a sip, you’ll have something else to feel even more stupid about.”

 

“Right now nothing could make me feel more stupid than fancying you!”

 

“Well that’s your problem, not mine.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kt. Updates on a weekday? God forbid!!
> 
> [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard_cream) is a custard cream and yes it is a biscuit. 
> 
> fag is a British term for a cigarette, don't @ me.
> 
> The song playing in the record store is Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones it bops hard.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been over a week since the last update, a weekend with kiddos and fresh air will do that to you.
> 
> I let my Londoner out in some parts, so sorry for the obscure land marks sprinkled through this. 
> 
> (please note updated tags.)

 

 

 

“Can you hand me a daisy, please?”

 

 Reggie blinked, flinching as the sun went straight through her sunglasses. She grumbled to herself, shielding her eyes as she looked over at Joanie. “Huh?”

 

“Can you please,” Joanie said, her smile just visible in the shadow cast by her battered sunhat, “pass me another daisy?” She tapped Reggie on the nose with the tiny flower in her hand, laughing when Reggie pulled a face.

 

 She peered around where she was sprawled out on the grass, and then pushed herself up onto her elbows to pluck a couple of choice flowers. Their hands brushed when Reggie handed them over, Joanie catching the tip of Reggie’s ring finger and tugging gently as she pulled her hand back.

 

 Reggie swung herself upright and crossed her legs, resting her elbows on her knee's to mirror how Joanie was sitting. She wanted to light a cigarette but didn't, instead ripping up blades of soft grass and sprinkling them into the the breeze as she watched Joanie place the flowers into her lap.

 

 Joanie used her blunt thumbnail to make a cut in the stem of the daisies, passing through the stem of the last one in the chain that she had laid carefully over her thigh. “As a child I had a terrible nervous habit,” she explained as she worked. “I used to bite at the skin around my nails or pick at my arms. Because I was so, umm...well, nervous. So my dad sat me down one day and had me make daisy chains so I’d have something to fiddle then. Then when...when he got _really_ ill I...my mum had worked with radios during the war, in the RAF, so when I couldn’t bare to do this she had me making crystal radio sets and the like and -” she waved a daisy around, “- that’s how I’m here.”

 

“I’m not glad about what happened to your dad, but I’m glad you ended up here.”

 

 Joanie shot her a smile, and then paused what she was doing as she peered up at the sky. “We should move into the shade!”

 

“No, I’m fine…”

 

“You’ll get burnt.”

 

“Is the chain finished?”

 

 Joanie rolled the daisy she was holding between her fingers as she considered it, and then Reggie. She did whatever you did to turn a daisy chain into a loop, Reggie couldn’t quite see what she was doing, and then held it up. “Ta dah!”

 

“Beautiful,” Reggie grinned, ducking her head obediently when Joanie went to put it around her neck. Reggie was very careful not to crush any petals when she pulled her hair out from under the chain, arranging it so it fell down the front of her half undone shirt.

 

 The daisies were as soft and gentle as kisses on her skin, and Reggie felt her neck heat when she thought about how every single one had been put there by Joanie.

 

 Reggie traced the petals on one delicate little flower, looking up to find Joanie attempting to put the few leftover daisies behind her ears. “Here,” she took the flowers from Joanie and got up onto her knee’s, tucking a few behind her ear and dotting the others into the soft waves of her hair.

 

“There,” she announced once she was done, running her hand back through her own hair to fluff it up out of habit. “Perfect.”

 

 They had already meandered through most of Kensington Gardens while eating the ice creams that, true to her word, Joanie had bought for them. They ended up wandering around the rest of the park instead of finding some shade to sit in, talking about anything and everything except what had happened at their last gig.

 

 They rounded the Bandstand a few times, looking over its elegant design and discussing what the acoustic’s would be like playing in a wide outdoor space like a park. “This has a lot of trees in it. I don’t think it’d be very good. I think next door in Hyde Park would be better. It’s got those big grass lawns lined with trees, you know. To funnel the sound instead of disperse it.”

 

“Hyde Park might be the only place to big enough to hold Freddie.”

 

“Can you imagine us ever playing anywhere like that?”

 

“Yes. Definitely!”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yep, and,” Reggie said, pointing over the tree’s at the roof of Kensington Palace. “When we’re successful enough to do play Hyde Park, I’m going to buy a house like that.”

 

“Like a palace?”

 

“Yeah. A great big one in the country. Really live it up. Invite ol’ Prince Charlie over for tea.”

 

“I’m sure he’d love that.”

 

“People will be vying to come around to afternoon tea. I’ll have the best fucking scones in England. Use all my free time and bags of money to find out how to make the perfect ones. And the best jam! Get in the best clotted cream from Cornwall...can we get tea and a scone? I’ve talked myself into wanting one.”

 

 Joanie laughed, a daisy falling from her hair when she tipped her face into the gentle breeze that was shifting through her maxi-dress. Her eyes turned into little half moons when she really smiled, dimples appearing on her cheeks, and it was utterly charming. Reggie stepped closer, holding Joanie’s elbows as she pushed her into the shadows under a tree.

 

“I don’t think there’s any scones under here,” Joanie snorted.

 

“No. That can wait for a bit. Can I...can I kiss you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

 Joanie wasn’t wearing platforms for once, so Reggie could lean right in and kiss her. Her lips were a little dry but still soft as anything, and when Reggie pulled back to check that this was all okay Joanie were smiling so sweetly she had to kiss her again. And again. And again

 

 Long fingers tangled in the front of Reggie’s shirt and she shuffled forward until they bumped into one another. Joanie gasped, and without really thinking Reggie ran her tongue along her soft bottom lip. Joanie pulled back for a beat of Reggie’s heart, swallowing thickly before nodding ever so slightly. She grabbed onto her sun hat when Reggie cupped her face and licked into her mouth, using her grip on Reggie’s shirt to pull her tight against her.

 

 Joanie tasted faintly of chocolate ice cream, and smelt of sunshine and warm grass. Reggie could have sunk right into her, stayed close for an eternity just slowly kissing. But they were snogging in the middle of the afternoon in a Royal Park, so, with a gentle kisss pressed to the mole on Joanie's cheek and the one on her chin, Reggie slowly pulled away.

 

“I really, really like you,” Joanie breathed, a shudder running through her when Reggie squeezed her waist. “And I think you should date me.”

 

 Reggie snorted. “I think I should too.”

 

“Good,” Joanie let go of her hat like she’d forgotten she’d been holding it on her head, brushing her fingers against her lips as she smiled. “We...scone. Scone?”

 

 Reggie stepped back, holding her hand out to help Joanie push herself off the tree. Joanie took it, and then didn’t let it go as they wandered across the grass, slotting their fingers together and swinging their hands between them instead.

 

 Reggie looked down at Joanie when she bumped her shoulder against her’s. Joanie had her head cocked back so she could look at Reggie from under her sunhat, and was giving her such a smile Reggie felt herself blush.

 

 

* ***** *

 

 Reggie, having neither poisoned anyone nor developed scurvy, considered herself to be not a terrible cook. She had no idea how long to boil a bloody egg for, but she could fry things, set oven timers, and cook pasta without burning it (like Freddie had once). So when she had told Joanie to come over for dinner she hadn’t thought twice about her ability to wine and dine her.

 

 What she _had_ been thinking about was that pay day was in a week and she’d spent all her cash sulking in a pub. So cooking stuff out of her’s (and stolen from Karen’s) cupboards was not only cheap, but it was _very_ thoughtful and romantic and all that stuff.

 

 She wasn’t too sure about the wisdom of all that after running wild tidying all the mess Joanie had seen a hundred times before. Reggie became dishevelled in no time at all, shaking her shirt to try and air out her underarms as she used her lighter to light the candles she had set out on the table and along the mantelpiece.

 

"The flat looks nice," Joanie said knowingly when she arrived, slipping her shoes off and padding into the main room of the flat.

 

“I nervously cleaned." 

 

 Joanie looked over the candles on the table as she set down the bottle of wine she had bought with her, heading into the small kitchen to peer at the food on the stove. “This smells really good.”

 

“It’s - uuuh. Not really made from scratch. But it should be good,” Reggie shrugged, looking Joanie over. “You look nice.”

 

“Oh,” Joanie ran her hands down the front of her pinafore dress and adjusted the cuff of her white blouse. “I didn’t...I wasn’t sure what to wear. I didn’t know if I’d be underdressed, and now I think I’m overdressed.”

 

 Reggie sauntered over to put her hands on Joanie’s waist. “Are you saying _I’m_ underdressed?” she teased.

 

“No! No you look...” she ran her hand’s up the arm’s of Reggie’s striped shirt and adjusted one of her necklaces. “You look wonderful. You always look wonderful.”

 

 Reggie felt her cheeks heat, unused to being the one getting compliments, and kissed Joanie softly. “We’re both foxy as anything.”

 

 Joanie smiled, leaning in for another kiss. “I was so nervous coming here. And now I don’t feel nervous at all.”

 

“Good,” Reggie gave her waist a squeeze. “I don’t want this to feel like a date, I just want it to be us.” Joanie glanced at the candles on the table, then at the neat row of clean mugs by the kettle, then back to Reggie. “Yeah, all right. Open the wine and shut up.”

 

“That’s more like it.”

 

 They sipped the wine while the pasta boiled, Reggie asking about the end of year project Joanie had just handed in. She wasn't as mechanically minded as Joanie, but she was smart enough to keep up with her, and Joanie always looked so pleased when she got to talk about what she was obviously fascinated by. She kept on blushing while she was talking, awkwardly trailing off with a mutter about how this wasn't interesting until Reggie encouraged her to keep speaking.

 

 Pasta cooked, Reggie put some effort into making the food look nice when she dished it all up. She shooed Joanie away when she tried to help with the garlic bread, but left her to it when she rinsed out the pans. If Joanie wanted to do something she was going to do it, and Reggie knew how to pick her battles.

 

 They had just sat down and started to eat, Reggie flushed from the wine and the sweet kiss of thanks she’d got from Joanie, when there was a knock on her front door.

 

“It’s probably upstairs locked out again, give me a second,” Reggie sighed, skidding over the tiled floor in her socks to pull the door open.

 

 It was Brian. “Hey Reg. I was around and I wanted to talk to you about…”

 

“Mate. Now is not a good time…” Reggie said, getting gently shouldered out of the way as Brian wandered past her, oblivious to her trying to block his way.

 

“I know it’s a little late, but I wanted to talk to you about it while I had it in my mind. And you know I hate talking on the phone.”

 

“Yes, I know you’re ancient. _Brian…_ ”

 

“I know. It’s not a good time. But I’ll only be a few minutes. It’s about a section in _Liar_ I was just wondering - oh Joanie’s here -,” Brian said when he spotted her shoes. “You two having a girls night?”

 

“Something like that,” Reggie sighed, still holding the door open as she eyeballed Brian.

 

“Great! I can talk to her about this as well. She’s got a great ear for melody, you know. It’s very impressive. So it’s about the middle section and I - Hi Joanie- and I…candles? Is there a blackout? Or did you blow a fuse by finally turning the cooker on?”

 

 Even as Brian laughed Reggie could see him put the pieces together. His eyes went from the table to the tidy kitchen, to the bottle of wine, to Joanie, to Reggie, and then back to Joanie. “ _Oh.”_

 

“It’s a bad time,” Reggie said slowly, amused by the look on Brian’s face.

 

“Oh. Oh I’m so sorry! You two -,” he backed up rapidly, Joanie half standing when Brian almost tripped over the sofa. “Well, I’m happy for you two. I’m sorry.”

 

“That’s okay,” Joanie smiled.

 

“I’m...I’ll leave,” he said, turning to Reggie who was trying not to laugh. “Umm...enjoy your date. Enjoy your date,” he called to Joanie. “You look very nice.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“You look…”

 

“You don’t need to compliment me,” Reggie said as Brian flapped his hand at her.

 

“Okay. Bye. Sorry.”

 

“That’s okay. Bye Brian.”

 

“Have a nice night!” Joanie called, Brian nodding and waving as she hurried out of the door and pulled it closed behind him.

 

 Reggie stared at her front door, then spun on the balls of her feet to shoot an exasperated look at Joanie who was trying not to smile. As it had always been with them, all it took was their eyes meeting for the both of them to burst into giggles.

 

“Well,” Reggie shook her head, moving her chair around the table so she could sit closer to Joanie. She flopped down into it and pulled her bowl over to her “At least there’s never a dull moment, is there?”

 

“Not at all,” Joanie smiled, carefully stabbing some pasta shells with her fork. “Do you think he’ll tell Freddie?”

 

“Oh straight away...do you not want him to? I’ll chase him down and…”

 

“No, no,” Joanie put her hand on Reggie’s. “No, it’s fine. I’m...I don’t mind.”

 

“He’ll make a fuss,” Reggie said as she slipped their fingers together, finding herself captivated by the way Joanie looked in the candlelight.

 

“He can do his worse,” Joanie shrugged, eyes catching on Reggie’s face before she ducked her head back to her dinner. “As long as I get to kiss you and hold your hand, I don’t mind.”

 

 

* ***** *

 

 The next morning Freddie was sat at the back of the stall looking like the cat who got the cream. He didn’t say anything, but made a point of checking Reggie’s neck for hickey’s.

 

“Stop it! It’s not like that and you know it!”

 

“That’s what Joanie said too.”

 

“Wh - what? When did you speak to her!”

 

“I go past her flat on the way here, and some mornings I go in for a cup of tea.”

 

“Oh, you would!”

 

“I’m happy for you,” Freddie said softly, giving Reggie’s hand a squeeze.

 

 She expected more teasing, was looking out for the subtlest dig or innuendo. But as the day wore on there was none of his usual big brother teasing, or even a dramatic shovel talk speech like he always said he wanted to give someone. He asked about their dates and about Joanie and smiled sweetly when Reggie tripped over her words a few times while talking about her.

 

 Of course he was happy for her, Freddie was like her brother, but Reggie had never seen him quite  _this_ happy before. And it made her neck heat when she realised that was probably because _she_ had never been quite this happy before, either.

 

 

* ***** *

 

“I spy...with my little eye...something beginning wiiiith…” there was a drumming of Freddie’s fingers over the dashboard. “ **R**.”

 

“Is it roadworks?” Joanie said, laughing at whatever Freddie did in reply to that.

 

“Roadworks! On the M1!” Freddie trilled, flinging his arm over the back of his seat. “Despite that being all we currently see, it isn’t roadworks.”

 

“Ummm…a Rover?”

 

“The only thing I know about car’s is the colour, dear.”

 

 Brian snorted from where he was, somehow, curled up on the back seat next to Reggie. “Shocking.”

 

“Silence! Let Deaky think!”

 

 Joanie leant across the front seat to peer out of Freddie’s window, then glanced into the back of the van. “Reg!” she grinned, and Reggie had to smile.

 

“Nope.”

 

 Reggie pouted, sliding forward to hook her chin over the front seat so she could take a look at the backed up traffic. “Rude.”

 

“No.” Freddie waggled his eyebrows and reached out to tap Joanie on the arm. “Well, my dear? Do you give up?”

 

“Is it,” Reggie spoke over Joanie’s capitulation. “Radiant beauty, because you were looking at my girlfriend?”

 

 Joanie went bright, bright red, not knowing what to do with herself and looking adorable while doing it. Freddie was obviously charmed even though he was groaning loudly, and Brian just shoved Reggie’s leg.

 

“If we were moving I’d have thrown myself into the traffic.”

 

“Who died and made you the love police?”

 

“Subtlety, and when you said that.”

 

 Reggie tried to shove her hand into Brian's neck to tickle him, and he sat bolt upright to stop her as he batted her away. His reprieve came when Joanie called Reggie’s name. She was leaning between the seats, and reached out to grab Reggie's collar to pull her closer. “You're beautiful too,” she whispered, giving Reggie one, two, three soft kisses before sliding back into the driver's seat.

 

“Oh _darling_!” Freddie sighed, sounding almost choked as he stroked Joanie's arm.

 

 Brian just whacked Reggie on the shoulder. “You're such a jammy cow. Look at your smug face!”

 

“Grumpy cause there's no kissy for you Bri.”

 

“ _Don't_ you _dare.”_

 

 _“No kiss for Brrriii,”_ Reggie cooed, grabbing a yelling Brian’s arm to try and reel him in.

 

“Stop it!” Freddie snapped, swiping a road map at their legs. “If you two are going to behave like children, then I’ll treat you like them!”

 

 

* ***** *

 

 The rev of the engine had barely died down before Reggie was out the door and springing up the steps onto the street.

 

“Someone’s bright and early,” Joanie called when Reggie jumped up onto the pavement in front of her, the bike helmet squishing her cheeks when she smiled.

 

“No-one ever became the best band in the world by being late to rehearsals,” she said sagely as she shoved her helmet on and hopped onto the back of the scooter.

 

“Did Brian work out mind control? Is this what’s going on?”

 

“I can be on time!” Reggie muttered, brushing Joanie’s hair out of the way so she could kiss her shoulder. “Good morning, love.”

 

“Good morning.”

 

“I missed you.”

 

“You saw me two days ago,” Joanie muttered, but there was a rough edge to her voice that had Reggie smiling against her shoulder.

 

 Two days ago they had picked up fish and chips and walked down to eat them on the Chelsea Embankment. They had huddled together against the cool breeze coming off the Thames, watching the light's of central London twinkling on as night closed in.

 

 Reggie had walked Joanie back to her flat when they could no longer justify sitting there any longer, and then went in for a cup of tea at the insistence of Joanie’s university flatmates. All of whom had been very curious about this band Joanie was in and, it seemed, this cool rock and roll drummer in their midst.

 

 She kissed Joanie’s shoulder again, remembering the way she had shuddered and gasped when Reggie had kissed her goodbye in the dark stairwell outside her front door. And from the way Joanie leant back against her, Reggie knew she was thinking about it too.

 

“I’ve thought about you ever since,” she murmured, wrapping her arms low around Joanie’s middle.

 

 Reggie, mostly in an attempt to reign in her emotions out of self preservation, had tired not to think about Joanie when she got herself off. But three hours after Reggie had got home that night she had been knuckle deep in herself thinking about nothing but Joanie.

 

 Reggie dropped a hand to squeeze Joanie's thigh, smiling to herself when she felt Joanie's sharp intake of breath as she bumped her leg against Reggie's to dislodge her hand. “I’ve got to drive,” Joanie muttered, giving herself a shake as she tightened her grip on the handlebars. “Behave.”

 

“Mmm...always,” Reggie smiled against her shoulder. She did sit up though, loosening her grip on Joanie because as fun as riling her up was, not crashing and dying was a lot more fun.

 

 

* ***** *

 

“Rrrregggiieee dear!” Freddie called from the front of the stall.

 

“If you’ve sold my sunglasses…”

 

“Nope. Visitor!”

 

 Reggie turned from where she was folding clothes, and was at the table in an instant when she saw Joanie on the other side of it. “Joanie! Hi.”

 

“Hi,” she smiled, moving over to keep out of the way of the customer Freddie was serving. “I umm...Tutoring ended early. Mrs.Hughes paid me for the two hours but she just wanted me to set the girls work to do while they’re in Spain. Which I think is a bit much, making children do maths on holiday…Anyway,” she held up a brown paper bag. “I brought you and Freddie lunch!”

 

 Joanie spent the rest of the afternoon tucked into the back of the stall reorganising Freddie and Reggie's little business. She went through the biscuit tin that held the receipts, sorting them out and jotting down amounts, then put the cash box in order while checking those amounts matched the money they had.

 

 She explained it all to them after they'd shut up for the day. They sat on the floor amongst the clothes and talked numbers and profit margins while passing around two bottles of coke Freddie had scrounged from somewhere. Talk soon turned to Queen, as it always did, and it was as they were sketching out a plan for band finances that Reggie realised she was totally in love.

 

 It wasn’t a surprise. It was as easy as slipping into a warm bath. While fireworks went off. Or something. Freddie was the wordsmith, Reggie just knew what things felt like. And this was love.

 

 She didn’t say anything, and she hoped she didn’t give anything away. Reggie loved Freddie, they both did, but this was their thing, and no-one else’s. Joanie got to hear this first, from Reggie, before anyone else got to know about it.

 

 Reggie turned back to the graph paper they were using to work stuff out, keeping an eye on Freddie as she rubbed her out the number set down for her drumstick budget. Joanie caught her, of course, her frown turning into a tight lipped smile when she saw what Reggie was doing. That was all the approval she needed, and Reggie wrote down the higher number she had wanted with a flourish.

 

 Sod the telling off she’d get from Freddie when he found out, she was in _love._

 

 

* ***** *

 

“Ayyyyy _YO_ ,” Freddie sang to himself in the mirror, sipped some of his magic throat tonic, and then went through another scale.

 

 Brian yawned, stretching his long arms above his head until his back cracked, and then went back to fiddling with the pegs on his guitar.

 

 Reggie tapped out a rhythm on her thighs and sighed around her cigarette, feeling like she should be doing something even though she had nothing left to do. Her drum kit was tuned and ready to go, Joanie’s temperamental bass had been expertly nursed into working order, and her nails had already been painted (Reggie had put some glitter on the black, it was very funky).

 

 Usually Reggie was fine lounging about, smoking and drinking, in the half an hour of calm before they went on stage. Today she was a bit jittery. She wanted to get up and do a lap of the room, or stick her head into the corridor and get into something that was none of her business. But Joanie had a leg thrown over her lap, and that was basically like a cat had fallen asleep on her.

 

She couldn’t, and wouldn’t move. Not for all the world.

 

 It helped (or had maybe caused the jitters) that Joanie was wearing just her blouse and underwear under her dressing gown. Reggie had seen her bare legs before, you saw a lot of someone when you were in a band with them, but it was different now. She could touch those legs, rest her hand on her knee or trace the line of her shin with her fingertips.

 

 She didn’t though. Joanie was rarely this relaxed before a gig, and Reggie didn't want to do anything to change that.

 

 Instead she took a drag on her cigarette and moved to stretch her arm along the back of the sofa, casually dropping it down so it wrapped around Joanie’s shoulders.

 

 Joanie glanced up at her with a small smile on her face, wiggling further under Reggie’s arm when she turned back to her magazine. Reggie looked over the fluffy waves of her hair, tucking a lock back behind her ear so she could see her face.

 

 She had her thumb pressed to her bottom lip that Reggie knew was soft and smooth. She was moving it gently side to side as she looked not at the magazine in her lap, like Reggie expected, but her curled and lightly mascara-ed lashes were raised as she looked at something across the room.

 

 She followed Joanie’s gaze, and found her own reflection staring back at her. Reggie had not been so heavy handed with the eyeliner today, and had gone for a faint pink on her lips as she found it looked better against her faintly freckled skin. She had messed up her dark blonde hair so it framed her face, and as she looked at herself she teased a few locks, encouraging them to fall over the necklaces that were covering her chest where her almost sheer shirt was unbuttoned.

 

 She put her cigarette back in her mouth and took a long drag, catching Joanie’s eye in the mirror as she slowly blew out the smoke.

 

 For a moment Joanie looked a little guilty for getting caught staring, then she twisted to face Reggie. She moved a necklace, adjusted a piece of hair, and then sat up just enough to kiss Reggie on the cheek. “You look beautiful,” she whispered, and in that moment Reggie felt like she could kick right through a wall if Joanie had wanted her to.

 

 

* ***** *

 

 Reggie paused in pouring orange juice into the glasses, half turning at the creak of the wonky floorboards in her living room. She listened a moment, going back to making her cocktails (cheap orange juice and even cheaper vodka- very sophisticated) with a smile on her face when she realised the creaks were in time to the music playing.

 

 She had never thought Joanie would be one for _Jefferson Airplane -_ they weren't exactly known for their funkiness - but when Reggie slipped out of the kitchen she found her happily dancing along to Reggie’s LP.

 

 She was barefoot, rolling onto the balls of her feet with every swell in the music. Her eyes were closed, face tipped towards the ceiling so her hair tumbled down her back, dress swirling around her thighs with with every movement of her body.

 

 It wasn’t sexy. No dancing was sexy in the seventies. But she was carefree, a small smile on her face as she enjoyed the simple pleasure of moving along to the music.

 

 Reggie watched her, letting the song mostly play out before she stepped close. Joanie startled, looking at little sheepish as she took the glass handed to her, “Sorry, got a bit lost in the moment.”

 

"I always enjoy a good show,” Reggie grinned, clinking their glasses together and moving back as she took a sip.

 

 Joanie considered her, then her drink, and set it aside, slipping Reggie's glass out of her hand to place down next to it. Reggie watched Joanie wet her bottom lip as she stepped up to her, not moving until Joanie wrapped her hand around the back of her neck to pull her into a kiss.

 

 There was a nervousness about Joanie that was never usually there when they kissed. She shifted and fidgeted, her free hand fluttering over Reggie’s shoulders and down her side until Reggie held her waist and pulled her close.

 

 She relaxed gradually, restless fingers falling to touch Reggie’s hip. She began to circle them slowly, getting wider and wider until she slipped her hand up the back of Reggie’s t-shirt. At first her touch was cautious, like there was even a possibility that Reggie wouldn’t welcome it, then Joanie pressed the full span of her hand against the small of Reggie’s back. She traced the curve of Reggie’s spine as they kissed, the palm of her hand coming to rest between Reggie's shoulder blades and a shiver ran through her when Joanie’s calloused fingertips lightly stroked over the base of her neck.

 

 Reggie sucked on Joanie’s bottom lip and then slid their tongues together, skimming her hands over the curve of Joanie’s hips to touch her thighs. She caught up handfuls of Joanie’s dress and slowly began to walk her fingers over the fabric to hike the skirt up her legs. The soft moan Joanie let out when Reggie’s fingers touched her bare skin made her pause, giving Joanie one last kiss before pulling away just enough to bump their noses together. “Is this okay?”

 

“I know you won’t rush, but, you know. Don’t rush?”

 

“I won’t,” Reggie stopped pulling her dress up, putting her hands back on Joanie's hips and tracing over the line of her knicker elastic. “Just let me know when it’s too much.”

 

 Joanie nodded, peppering Reggie’s mouth with kisses as Reggie squeezed her hips and her waist and her ribs. She ran her thumbs over the band of her bra, letting them brush the curve of her breast for a moment before Reggie smoothed her hands back down to the safety of Joanie’s hips.

 

“You can…” Joanie breathed, taking her hands from Reggie to start unbuttoning her dress. Reggie wanted to help more than anything in the fucking world right now, but this was only going as far as Joanie wanted it to, so she kept her hands where they were.

 

“You can touch me if you want,” Joanie said once her dress was open to her navel, grabbing Reggie’s wrists to slip her hands inside her dress

 

 Reggie curled her hands around her waist, soaking up the warmth of her skin as she swept her thumbs over her soft stomach and the divots of her ribcage. She wrapped her arms around Joanie's slightly sweaty back and dragged her against her front, resting a hand on the swell of her bum as she kissed Joanie hard. Long fingers threaded into Reggie’s hair as Joanie gasped softly, letting herself be pulled across the cramped living room. Reggie slowly trailed off he kisses when her legs bumped into her sofa, letting her hands slip from inside Joanie's dress when she sat down heavily.

 

 It seemed to take Joanie a second to pull herself out of the shock of no longer being kissed. Then she dropped down to straddle Reggie’s lap, putting Reggie’s hands on the curve of her thighs as she rooted about inside her dress. “I said,” she huffed as she dragged her bra out of an armhole. “That you can touch me.”

 

 The curve of her breasts were just visible between the open folds of her dress. Reggie curled her fingers into her thighs, absentmindedly wetting her bottom lip as she tried to commit the sight to memory. She immediately snapped her gaze up to Joanie when she realised she had been staring, and found herself being carefully watched by heated, slightly guarded eyes.

 

 Reggie tipped her head up to kiss along Joanie’s jaw and down her neck, using the back of her hand to push her dress open so she could cup one of her breasts. She paused when Joanie tensed ever so slightly, laying a couple of soft kisses to the base of her throat until she relaxed again. Reggie kissed up and down her neck lazily, enjoying the feel of Joanie, and started to circle her hard nipple with her thumb.

 

 Joanie almost sounded surprised when she moaned. She buried her face into Reggie’s hair, balling her hands into the shoulders of Reggie’s t-shirt when she began to lightly roll Joanie’s other nipple between her fingertips.

 

 All tits were great, _really great._ And it might have been because Reggie had been wanting to touch her for so long, or because they fit into her broad hands almost perfectly, but Joanie’s? They were bloody amazing.

 

“ _Oh_ ,” Joanie breathed, pushing her hips down against Reggie’s thighs before sitting back, tugging at the shoulders of Reggie’s T-shirt. “Can...can I?”

 

 Reggie was at a loss for what to do. Yes, she would love to have Joanie’s hands on her, but that also meant taking her hands off of Joanie. Which she really didn’t want to do.

 

 She ducked her head to trail her lips over Joanie’s breasts, leaving sucking kisses on warm, impossibly soft skin just to force a choked, still surprised noise out of Joanie.

 

 Reggie pulled herself away with one last press of a fingertip over Joanie’s nipple. She dragged her shirt off, flinging it over the back of the sofa and shaking her hair out of her eyes as she looked up at Joanie. She had her lip pulled between her teeth, eyes flicking over Reggie as she reached out to copy what Reggie had just done to her.

 

 She watched Reggie’s face as she rubbed lightly at her nipples, pressing firmer and firmer until Reggie shifted and moaned. Joanie darted in to kiss her then, flicking her tongue into Reggie’s mouth before pulling back to kiss down her chest.

 

 Joanie ended up almost perched on Reggie’s knee, the ends of her hair tickling Reggie’s stomach as she trailed soft kisses between her breasts. Reggie tried very hard not to shift or fidget, reaching out to grab Joanie’s waist to stop her sliding clean off of Reggie’s lap.

 

 Joanie moaned softly, pressing her hips down so she was almost grinding against Reggie’s knee. She was wet, Reggie could feel it through her jeans, and she dug her fingers into Joanie’s skin to encourage her to rock her hips down down harder.  

 

“Have you ever got yourself off before?”

 

 Joanie sat up, gripping the back of the sofa as she tossed her hair out of the way. “A couple of times.”

 

 Reggie swallowed, eyes flicking to Joanie’s breasts and giving in to the temptation of running the flat of her tongue over the hard bud of a nipple. “Do you want to come to bed with me?” Reggie asked through Joanie’s sharp intake of breath.

 

“Yes.”

 

“To have sex?” She checked.

 

“Yes. But I...I know I've never done it before, but I don't want this to just be about me. I want to touch _you_ as well.”

 

 It wasn’t all that far to Reggie’s bedroom. She laid Joanie out on her bed, pulling off her belt and undoing her trousers while she watched Joanie sweep her hair out from under her shoulders.

 

“Do you want your underwear on or can I see you?”

 

 Joanie blushed, pressing her thighs together in what Reggie thought was a no. Which was more than fine; it had taken Reggie a while to get over the ‘this is a secret place never to be touched’ shit drilled into her as a child, and she was always sympathetic to first time nerves anyway.

 

 But then Joanie planted her feet on the bed and rolled her hips up as she pushed her knickers down. Reggie helped get them over her feet when she knelt on the mattress, dropping them onto the floor as she shuffled between Joanie’s legs. She put her hands on Joanie’s knees and ran them up her thighs, digging her thumbs into the crease of her hip before pushing her dress up to her stomach.

 

 Joanie spread her hands over Reggie’s waist when she leant over her to kiss her. Reggie pushed Joanie’s hair off her face, smiling when her own was neatly tucked behind her ears by gentle fingers. “I love you,” Joanie sighed, kissing over Reggie’s bottom lip and cheek.

 

“Love you too,” Reggie smiled, pecking Joanie on the lips before sitting back on her heels . She placed a hand on Joanie’s stomach as she looked over her from the top of her head down to her soft inner thighs, encouraging her knees open a little wider so she could see all of her. “You’re so fucking beautiful, you know that?”

 

“Not bad yourself,” Joanie said, voice sounding frayed around the edges even as she rubbed her calf against Reggie’s hip.

 

 She took Joanie’s hand, kissing her wrist and her palm, before leaning over her again and slipping it into her jeans. Joanie’s eyes widened slightly, a faint frown flitting over her face while she got her bearings. She stroked over the damp cotton of Reggie’s underwear, pressing her middle finger up just enough to trace the edges of her labia. A smile tugged at her lips when Reggie’s breath caught and she pressed harder, even making a point of brushing a fingertip over Reggie’s clit, but it soon became clear that she wasn't going to attempt to get inside of Reggie's underwear. She caught Joanie's wrist, moving her hand so the heel of her palm pressed over Reggie’s clit, giving Joanie a quick kiss as she began to grind down against it. Joanie, ever whip smart, didn’t take long to get the idea and she began to press her hand up in time with Reggie’s movements, long fingers lightly brushing over her.

 

“Can,” Reggie started, then got distracted by kissing the curve of Joanie’s collarbone. “Can I touch you?”

 

“Please.”

 

“How?”

 

 Joanie gave her a lost look. “I honestly have no fucking clue. Just...just do your thing.”

 

“Okay,” Reggie kissed her breast, pressing a firmer kiss to the soft skin when Joanie gasped. “Okay, I've got you.”

 

 Reggie slipped her free hand between them, tracing Joanie’s sharp hip bone and the curve of her thigh, then ran her fingers across Joanie’s abdomen to trail them over her other hip, letting them slip down and down and down. Reggie held eye contact when she gave her fingers a quick lick before rubbing over Joanie’s pussy, kissing her softly when she breathed hard.

 

 Joanie opened her legs wider when Reggie pressed her fingers in to feel just how wet she was. Reggie nipped up her neck as she stroked over her inner labia again and again until Joanie moaned, and then she brushed her fingers over Joanie’s clit.

 

 Joanie jerked, and gasped, feet leaving the bed when Reggie circled her fingertips over her clit. Reggie smiled to herself, pulling Joanie’s hand out of her underwear when she kissed down to the bundle of fabric at her waist. She nipped her stomach that was clenching every time she whined or gasped, Reggie taking a moment to soak up the feel and the taste and the smell of Joanie as she sucked a mark onto her skin.

 

 Reggie pushed her dress open and kissed over Joanie’s ribs and the curve of her tits, sucking a nipple into her mouth and pulling back when Joanie almost arched off the bed.

 

 “Oh fuck. _Fuck. Oh!”_

 

 Reggie did it again, leaving her thumb pressed against Joanie's clit while she stroked over her pussy again. Reggie picked her head up, watching Joanie as she very lightly ran a fingertip over the entrance to her vagina. Her face did something complicated and she bit her lip, her finger’s flexing against Reggie’s shoulder when her grey eyes flicked sharply to her.

 

“Okay?” Reggie checked, holding onto Joanie’s free hand as she pressed a finger into her wet, smooth heat. Joanie jerked and juddered, breathing coming fast and ragged when Reggie rocked her finger in and out of her a few times before crooking it inside her, searching out that spot that only lesbians seemed to know about.

 

  Reggie put her drummers arms to good use and soon Joanie was letting out a tirade of curses and soft gasps, digging her fingers into Reggie’s hair to keep her face pressed into her tits (which was no hardship for her at all). Reggie fucked Joanie’s faster or harder when she was told to, was already planning on never stopping when Joanie pleaded with her.

 

 Joanie whimpered and groaned, tensing all of a sudden before relaxing in one long shudder, body twitching as she tensed again and again until she threw her head back and cried out. She clenched down on Reggie's fingers, heels slipping on the sheets as her back arched off the bed.

 

 Usually this was when Reggie would throw legs over her shoulders and make whoever she was in bed with scream as she ate her out. But they had all the time in the world to get to that, Reggie thought as she pushed her jeans and her underwear down her thighs. She rubbed at her own clit, mouthing gently at Joanie’s heaving chest as she made herself cum just enough to take the aching edge off.

 

 Reggie wasn’t all that heavy, so she didn't think it was too much of an imposition to settle down on top of Joanie. She wiped her soaked hand on the sheets, smiling when she felt Joanie trace over her knuckles. “How was that?”

 

“Come up here and kiss me,” Joanie demanded, so Reggie did just that, licking softly into her mouth as Joanie dragged her hands all he way down Reggie’s back to rest on the top of her arse. “Fantastic. I don’t know…” Joanie licked her bottom lip and kissed Reggie again, giggling when Reggie put her hand not so subtly on one of her breasts. “You were waiting to get your hands on my tit’s, weren’t you?”

 

“Maybe.”

 

 Joanie kissed her chin, curling her fingers over Reggie’s ribs. “How about we finish our drinks and maybe...we can do more? A little later?”

 

 Reggie nodded, snorting when Joanie grabbed one of her tits and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Have you just discovered how great boobs are?”

 

“Yes,” Joanie smiled, welcoming the kiss Reggie gave her.

 

 

* ***** *

 

“I'm happy for you two.”

 

 Reggie looked up from collapsing her cymbals. She smiled at Brian, her gaze automatically flicking to Joanie who was winding up her lead. “Yeah?”

 

“I'm not going to be unhappy, am I?”

 

 Reggie shook her head as she handed him her cymbal. “You are famously un-knowable, Bri.”

 

“I'm not going to be an arsehole about it, don't worry,” Brian muttered sourly, making to turn away but Reggie caught his sleeve

 

“Deaky,” Reggie said softly, rubbing the velvety material of his top between her fingers. “Told me how much she appreciates that you never spoke down to her, and always expected the best from her, and made an effort with her boundaries. Freddie has done a lot for her, but so have you. Just more quietly. So, as her girlfriend, thank you. I know you don't need to hear that, but thank you. For...treating her like you learnt to treat me.”

 

“Oh. Oh well,” he stammered. “She's...she is full of potential. And is a major asset to the band,” Brian tugged his sleeve out of Reggie's grip. “She's also made you weirdly nice as well, which we all thought was impossible.”

 

“Love you _Briiiian_!” Reggie called as he scooped up the rest of her cymbals and headed off to the back of he venue.

 

“Yeah. Me too. For some reason!”

 

 Reggie picked up her bass pedal and looked around for Joanie, jumping off the edge of the stage to wander through the remains of the crowd that weren't gathered around the bar.

 

“Hey, good set!” someone called and she saluted them with the pedal.

 

“Cheers mate!”

 

“Yeah great set. Want a drink?”

 

“Nah I'm alright. Thanks though.”

 

 She found Joanie in the corner of the room chatting to Karen who was in sweaty, beaming, disarray.

 

“Reggie! You were wonderful!” Karen threw her arms around her. “You guys get better and better every time!”

 

“Thanks. All down to our wonderful new bassist finding her groove,” she shot a smile at Joanie who's post gig flush - nothing more than a shadowy smudge on her cheeks in the half light of the concert hall - only darkened.

 

“I _was_ just saying how sexy her playing was.”

 

“All comes from the fingers, did you notice?”

 

“Fuck off!” Joanie groused, smiling all the same when Reggie kissed her cheek.

 

“You _were_ great, sweetheart.”

 

“So were you.”

 

 Reggie smiled at her, pressing her hand to Joanie’s lower back as she turned to Karen. “You enjoyed the set?”

 

“Don't I always. I was actually saying to Joanie that you've all really hit your stride. Cigarette?” Reggie took one, Joanie politely declining. “Sooo… you two love birds coming out after, or is it a private party?”

 

 Reggie looked over Joanie, the way she was glowing with the exhilaration and effort of playing a great gig, and thought that the only way she could possibly look more beautiful was if she was sat on Reggie's face. “Ah well. We might do a bit of both. What do you think?”

 

“Y-yes,” Joanie looked away from Reggie, who wasn’t even trying to keep her want off her face, to smile politely at a very amused looking Karen. “I wouldn’t mind going out for a bit,” she said, eyes catching on someone walking past. “Oh. Excuse me.”

 

 Reggie turned to watch her dart off after some man in a blue suit, peering through the haze of cigarette smoke to try and see if she knew him.

 

“Who’s that?” Karen asked.

 

“I think it’s the bloke Joanie slapped that one time.”

 

 Karen’s eyes widened, cigarette held halfway to her lips as she gawked after Joanie. “Christ. Is she going to finish the job?”

 

 Reggie laughed, thought about it, and then hurried after Joanie who had just got the man's attention.

 

“Hello. Sorry. I...you probably remember me?”

 

“I remember the slap. Yes.”

 

“Sorry about that. I just...thank you for booking us again despite that…”

 

“I book bands depending on popularity and talent,” he said shortly. “I don’t let personal matters get involved.”

 

“I’m...really sorry I slapped you. I overreacted. I get really wound up at gig’s sometimes...”

 

“That’s fine, love. It’s fine,” he gave her a not so subtle once over. “Do you want to come for a drink and we can…” he trailed off when Reggie stepped up next to Joanie, eyes snapping to her arm slipping possessively around her waist. “Ah,” he said, then smiled. “That explains the slap!”

 

“Again, I’m so sorry about that.”

 

 He waved the apologies away, Reggie impressed by how well he was taking all this right up until he ruined it. “You ladies decide you want a good time, and a proper shag, you know where to find me.”

 

 He winked at them, trailing his hand over Joanie’s shoulder as he walked away.

 

“Well.” Joanie broke the stunned silence.

 

“You should have slapped him harder.”

 

“Yeah probably,” she rubbed at her arm, face screwed up in discomfort, so Reggie turned towards her and cupped her cheek.

 

“Let's go unleash Karen on the boys, have a drink, and forget all about that wanker.”

 

 Joanie nodded, running her hand up Reggie’ arm to hold her wrist. “Sound’s good.”

 

“And then, I can take you back to mine and fuck you better than he could ever hope to.”

 

 Joanie laughed, pulling Reggie’s hand from her face and squeezing it between her own. “You don’t have to prove that to me.”

 

“I like challenging myself,” she grinned, looping her arm back around Joanie’s waist and waving Karen over. “Come on. No more thoughts about this. Us sci-fi fans have got keep our eyes on the future.”

 

“The big house full of cake future? Or you fucking me future?”

 

“Mmm... Both.”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaayyyyy. ssooo THAT happened
> 
> (can you tell that I really wanted a scone while I wrote this) (Also it's Not an American biscuit, they're totally different things!)
> 
> *The RAF is the Royal Air Force, I don't know if Molly Deacon was a radio or radar operator during WW2, but it fits nicely with Joanie being in to electronic's. So there!
> 
>    
> Chpt 4 is less plot more...me trying something out. That'll prob be out next Friday, fingers crossed.
> 
> (also check out my Hyde Park concert foreshadowing, get meeee)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is it. My last lesbiab chpt! I love my girls, and I'm so pleased you all have as well!
> 
> We do some time jumps in this, so pls keep an eye on the dates.

  

 

 **** **_Long Live the Queen: The start of a new dynasty?_ **

**_By, Arthur Evans._ **

_NME December Issue, 1974 _

 

 

_...But enough about the rising success of this band who I’m sure, unless you have been living under a particularly heavy rock (pun intended), you have heard all about._

 

_I’m shown into the studio with the famous all female rhythm section. Drummer Regina Taylor (24), who would make most actresses feel a twinge of self doubt when looking at her curling blonde locks and big blue eyes, is sprawled in a chair smoking quietly. She looks amused by Joan Deacon (22) who is perched up on an equipment case looking like a china doll, her trendsetting flower embroidered platform boots tapping gently against its side._

 

_Taylor is the one to offer me a drink and a seat, watching me with a heavy gaze as I introduce myself. I apologise for being presumptuous, and ask if she’s been snapped up yet, shattering thousands of dreams around the country. Taylor laughs at that, glancing back at Deacon before shaking her head. “Not got the time mate,” she explains. “Besides, they all just want one thing, don’t they?” she jokes, bawdy laughter echoing around the room._

 

_Regina Taylor is from Cornwall, and it shows in her carefree, ever summer attitude to things. She originally came up to London to study dentistry, but when the rigours of the course didn’t agree with her she switched to Biology, in which she has a degree._

 

_I ask her if this had helped at all with her drumming. She explains to me about how she tries to keep her heart rate down so tempo’s don’t get out of control, and then details which muscle groups help make the solid wall of noise she is becoming famous for. “I can concentrate on making them stronger and not overworking them. It also helps that I know about lactic acid build up and all that. Like an athlete.” I ask her if she thinks of herself as an athlete and she laughs. “I do feel like I’ve run a marathon after some gigs, yes.”_

 

_Drumming is known for ruining the hands, and I ask her how she keeps her’s from being so damaged. “Well. The only way to do that is to keep on drumming. It hurts like a b****r but once you get past that, it’s usually fine.” She show’s me the smooth calluses on her fingers and the few scars on her palms. “Once you get them like this, you have to keep it up. If we were to have a break of six months, a year, then before we did anything again I’d have to take a week or two to build it up again.” So no need for gloves when she does the washing up, I joke, and she smiles toothily at that._

 

_Next, I asked bassist Joan Deacon, who was awarded an honours degree in Electrical Engineering last year (she has brains and charm in equal measure), something that a few people who have been following the band for a while have been wondering. Why does she have every other nail painted black, and the rest painted white._

 

_“Oh well, you see,” she says, voice very gentle. “We only had black and white nail polish because of Freddie and Brian. So Reg and I, we decided to just paint them like this. Freddie says I look like a piano keyboard,” she laughs, which makes Taylor smile._

 

_I put to her the rumour that it’s to symbolise something, to which she seems genuinely confused. “I’m not big on symbolism.” I explain that some people think it symbolises her being caught between lead singer Freddie Mercury - who paints his nails on his left hand black- and guitarist Brian May - who paints his left hand white (you’ll meet those two later)._

 

_“Caught between them how?” she wonders, only to have the details explained to her by Taylor in a hushed voice. “Oh no!” She says at once. “That’s just...no! Would people be wondering that if I was a man with my nails painted like this?” I tell her I couldn’t say, and receive a surprisingly fierce glare from someone who is famously quiet and demure on stage. “Well you can tell your reader’s that I’m not with either of them. And even if I was it wouldn’t be any of their business.” A touch of Taylor’s hand seems to calm her ruffled feathers a little. “I understand that we’re interesting. Because we are successful. And Regina and I are women in a male dominated industry. But I’m here for the music, and I hope most of our fans are too.”_

 

_As she is understandably agitated by this - Joan is twenty two, and later on I discover from singer Freddie Mercury that he is doing his utmost to shelter her from the wilder side of Rock and Roll (“She’s far from delicate,” he explains as he swirls a cup of tea. “But all that sex and drugs, it’s not for her at all. And I’ll do my best to stop it from(...)ruining her. Not just for the band, but because she’s very dear to me. Like a little sister!”) - I leave it there, and ask her about how much help she gets in her composing of bass riffs from fellow guitarist Brian May…_

 

 

**

 

“Reggie darling, are you girls all right in there?”  Freddie cooed as he poked his head around the control room door. “Do you want some flowers to arrange? A bit of needlework?”

 

“A needle to stab someone with,” Reggie muttered as she lit a cigarette, grinning at Freddie after taking a deep drag.

 

“I wonder who that would be,” Freddie said airily, turning a smile on Joanie who was still perched on an equipment case. “If he's insulted you my dear, I shall of course murder him in cold blood.”

 

“I'm fine Freddie, thank you.”

 

“What about if I'm insulted!”

 

“You could make him shit his pants on a whim, darling. Don’t pretend like you don’t know it.”

 

“Fucking right I can,” Reggie said in a cloud of smoke, shooting Freddie a little wave when he ducked away to go and be _properly_ interviewed with Brian.

 

 At least splitting the band into a half arsed, almost insulting interview with the ‘girls’, and then doing a full on feature with the men was a little better than being flat out ignored. Or that one time when Brian and Freddie had been interviewed while Joanie and Reggie basically had a fashion shoot.

 

 Not that Reggie minded having her photo taken. She had never been demure about the fact she was attractive. She liked to look good and dress well, and was more than happy to have professional photos taken of her on (as the Americans say) someone else's buck. Even if she’d had to dig her heels in and point bank refuse half of the pretty dresses people tried to put her in, she still enjoyed it.

 

 Joanie, on the other hand, minded them a lot. She was young and and sometimes looked much younger, which everyone seemed to have a perverse fascination with; be it photographer’s wanting her to look like a wide eyed, oh so innocent schoolgirl (Brian and Freddie agreed this was weird, and Freddie had kicked off about it more than once), moralists disapproving of her being at the mercy of all those nasty men in the music industry, and the same nasty men taking too much interest in her perceived sheltered naivety.

 

 All that worry and fuss over her virginity, Reggie thought with a smug smile, and she’d taken care of that a long time ago.

 

“What’s that smile for?”

 

 Reggie slipped her hand into her open shirt when she looked up at Joanie, rubbing over her collarbone as she took a long drag on her cigarette. “Thinking about things,” she shrugged, being careful to exhale the smoke away from Joanie’s face.

 

 Joanie raised one elegant eyebrow, and when nothing more was forthcoming she shrugged and went to stand. “Keep your secrets then.”

 

 Reggie angled her chair to face Joanie, placing her hand on her bare knee to get her attention. “Thinking about you.”

 

 It was still so easy to make Joanie bush, and Reggie was yet to get tired of it. She smoothed her thumb over her knee, taking another drag on her cigarette as she let her eyes trail over her. She was wearing a long sleeved, knee length dress that was one of Reggie’s favourites, the colour bringing out the green in her eyes and making her skin look even more soft and smooth than Reggie knew it was.

 

 The cut also showed off the shape of her bum and the length of her leg’s wonderfully. Leg’s that Joanie had uncrossed to let her feet swing, calves brushing Reggie’s arm as the heel’s of her platforms thumped lightly against the case she was sat on.

 

“About me? Not about ways to keep your hands nice and smooth for a _boyfriend,_ ” Joanie mimicked the interviewer, and laughed at herself.

 

“Are my hands so very rough and calloused and strong?” Reggie murmured as she let her hand fall to Joanie’s inner thigh. She watched her lashes flutter just a little at the touch, her eyes flicking to the door. Reggie shook her hair back off her face as she took a drag on her cigarette, planting her foot against one of the guitar cases and kicking it so it butted up against the door.

 

 She didn’t miss the way that made Joanie shift and she smiled, walking her fingers slowly up her leg until her hand passed the hem of her dress. Reggie squeezed her thigh, letting Joanie make up her mind about opening her legs further or not. She was perfectly happy just feeling up Joanie's leg if she was honest, taking another quick drag before ducking her head to softly press a kiss to her knee.

 

“You’re insatiable,” Joanie said softly, long fingers moving gently through Reggie’s hair.

 

“How can I not be when you’re so beautiful,” Reggie said against the inside of her knee, straightening to drop her cigarette into the mug she was using as an ashtray.

 

 Joanie curled forward to kiss her, letting her legs fall open for Reggie. She placed her other hand on the base of Joanie’s throat, moving it down to gently squeeze one of her tits as her other hand reached Joanie’s underwear.

 

 She slipped her fingers under the elastic, stroking the outside of Joanie’s pussy before pushing her knickers to the side. Their mouths slid apart, Reggie rubbing her lip’s together to feel the smear of Joanie’s lipstick on them as she rested her hand on Joanie's abdomen so she could circle her thumb over her clit.

 

 Joanie gasped softly and dropped back so her shoulder’s hit the wall, shifting to give Reggie better access. And a better view. She pressed her smile to the inside of Joanie’s knee, keeping her eye on the wet sheen on her pussy as she moved her hand to rub over her again and then push two fingers into her.

 

 What with them being behind a not all that securely closed door in a busy studio Reggie probably should have been in more of a hurry. She didn’t feel like just making Joanie cum though, she wanted to watch her twitch and gasp while she was lazily fingered to a lazy orgasm.

 

 Joanie bit down a moan, chest heaving as she rolled her hips into the crook of Reggie’s fingers as best she could. Reggie pushed her dress up, scooting forward on her chair so she could kiss Joanie’s hip bones and bite at the crease of her thigh. The high, panting noise Joanie let out when Reggie circled her tongue over her clit echoed around the room, the heels of her platforms scraping down the side of the box as she grabbed at Reggie’s shoulder.

 

 Reggie could have quite happily stayed down there, but the ‘I just ate a girl out’ look wasn’t really work appropriate. She pulled away to kiss down Joanie’s thighs, speeding up the rock of her finger’s into Joanie until a wet noise began to fill the room. A blush bloomed over Joanie’s face, biting her lip as her stomach tensed and her heels clunked into the side of the box, one moan sneaking through her heavy breathing as she jerked and shuddered.

 

 With one final rub of her hand over Joanie’s pussy Reggie pulled away, continuing her nonsense pattern of kisses over Joanie’s legs until a hand landed on her shoulder. “Reg.”

 

“Hi darling,” Reggie smiled against Joanie’s skin, carefully pushing her underwear back into place. She pressed the cotton into her wetness to make Joanie gasp before smoothing her dress down over her legs again and sitting back.

 

 Joanie pushed herself upright with a sigh that puffed her hair off of her forehead, tugging at the shoulder of Reggie’s shirt. She shuffled closer to Joanie, and at another insistent tug she got to her feet. “What are…” Reggie started, and then laughed when Joanie started to undo her trousers. “You can get me at home.”

 

“Just like you could’ve fucked me at home and not in the studio?” Joanie untucked Reggie’s shirt and pushed her trousers down over her backside. “I’m not the only irresistible woman in this room,” she said, hooking her heel around the back of Reggie’s knee to pull her between her legs.

 

 She grinned up at Reggie, holding her gaze when she slipped her fingers into her mouth. She didn’t look away as she got her fingers wet, or when she pulled them out of her mouth with a pop, or when she pushed her hand between Reggie’s leg’s.

 

 Reggie grabbed at Joanie, murmuring an apology when she caught a handful of her hair. She swayed in close, picking her leg up to rest her knee on the equipment case to give Joanie more room.

 

 Joanie smoothed her other hand up under Reggie’s shirt, dragging her nails gently over her back and smiling when Reggie clung to her.  “I’m still going to get you at home,” Joanie said softly, rolling the tip of her index finger over Reggie’s clit as she pushed the ends of her long fingers into her. “And you’re going to get me. Like really good _friends_ do _.”_

 

 Reggie laughed, slipping her hands into Joanie’s hair as she pushed down against her dexterous, strong, fucking _excellent_ hand. Every woman should have a bassist in their life, Reggie thought - she’d make an analogy about her playing Reggie’s pussy with as much delicacy and skill as she formed her bass riffs, but she was a little preoccupied.

 

 She ended up half in Joanie’s lap, palming over the muscle in her shoulder that was working hard as she brought Reggie to one delicate, shuddering, orgasm.

 

 

**

 

 Reggie was doodling on her lyric sheet when Freddie and Brian got back. She shot them a salute, half dancing in her seat to the tune Joanie, who was sat on the live room floor, was working out on Brian’s acoustic.

 

 Joanie looked up when Brian rapped his knuckles on the live room window, waving her pick at him when he shot her a thumbs up. “Written any hit’s while we’ve been away?”

 

“Oh _us?_ ” Reggie cooed. “We’ve been making dinner and doing the washing up. All sorts of womanly things!”

 

 Freddie hmm-ed sceptically as he looked around the room. “Been doing a woman, I’m sure.”

 

 Reggie grinned around the pencil she'd stuck between her teeth, laughing when Brian groaned. “Did you fuck in the studio _again_!”

 

“What do you mean again?!” Reggie blustered.

 

“Don’t play dumb.”

 

“What - we haven’t!” Reggie protested. She looked around at Freddie for support, and found him suddenly very interested in the tape. “Freddie!” she laughed. “You rotter! Did you blame us for fucking in here?

 

“You are all terrible!” Brian muttered.

 

“Oh as if you _wouldn’t_.”

 

“Not in the middle of recording!”

 

“So when we’re done it’s okay,” Freddie scoffed. “Soon as the last note fades out you’ll be bringing some pretty little thing in here and fucking her over the amps.”

 

 Brian went bright red. “Might as well, as you’ve all done it.”

 

“I didn’t fuck Joanie over the amps.”

 

“I really don’t want to…”

 

“What are you all talking about?” Joanie’s voice echoed around the control room and they all turned to look at her.

 

 Reggie threw herself across the room to get to the live room mic first. “Nothing, sweetheart. Just bitching about the interview.”

 

“Why is Bri blushing?”

 

“Oh well you see, he was just saying how he was going to…” was as far as Reggie got before Brian shoved her off the mic.

 

 

* ***** *

 

_** An Interview with Queers...We mean Queen** _

**_By, Steve Conway_ **

_Indianapolis Star, June_ _1984_

 

…

 _Cross-dressing_ _aside - a sentence few who review rock music would think to ever write - there is of course the, how shall we say,_ closeness, _between the famous all female rhythm section. It’s of course understandable that the two women, Taylor (thirty-five) and Deacon (thirty-three), would become firm friends in an industry populated with men. But recent photos published in the British Press speak of an unusually_ tactile _friendship._

 

[Photo 1: Joan Deacon and Regina Taylor appear to be holding hands over a table while enjoying a romantic dinner]

[Photo 2: Regina Taylor kisses bassist Joan Deacon’s hand]

[Photo 3: The pair share an embrace in the parking lot]

[Photo 4: A kiss]

 

_“Oh, don’t you kiss your friends?” Taylor joked when I asked the band about it in their plush Fifth Avenue suite. “I think we all know the relationship status of me and Joanie by now, do you really need more column inches on it?”_

 

_I put it to her that it’s of interest to our readers, and Mr.Mercury asks me how many of them are Queen fans. “If the people who pay our bill’s care, then we’ll tell them. Our business is nothing to do with your ****ing paper.”_

 

_I ask if such blatant display’s were a good idea considering the influence the band, and especially the ladies in it, have over so many impressionable youths. How they might confuse this with a real, and fulfilling, relationship - “They’re going to kiss who they’re going to kiss” - Taylor says, and then I asked if she has anything to say to those worried they are promoting a lifestyle that is so unsustainable._

 

_It’s then that Joan Deacon, who has been sat in contemplative silence all this time, speaks. “Why is showing affection so concerning?” I begin to explain and then am interrupted. “Because all I see in TV and magazines and the like is people complaining about their other halves, or undermining them. Is that not, you know, negatively influencing youths?” She then appears to become unreasonably agitated. “And how can you ask us about shoving our honest affection and love for one another in everyone’s faces when it’s people like you spreading paparazzi photo’s of us around?”_

 

_She then said something unprintable that could only have come from being…_

 

 

**

 

“Do you even know what a G-spot is? No? Have your poor wife get back to me if you ever manage to find it and get her off," Joanie spat.

 

 Brian and Freddie tried very hard not to laugh, but the shocked look on the journalist's face (short back and sides, wearing khaki's. Reggie had known he was going to be trouble the moment he walked in) had them dissolving into giggles. He only seemed to become more righteously indignant at being laughed at, so Reggie joined in at a spiteful volume.

 

 

**

 

 Reggie was still laughing about it at she flopped back on the bed, tipping her head back when Joanie straddled her chest.

 

“What?”

 

“Just you being fucking magnificent,” Reggie grinned, grabbing the backs of Joanie’s legs.

 

“You talking about that interview or my pussy?”

 

“This pussy. Obviously,” Reggie pushed on Joanie’s thighs to get her to kneel around her shoulders, brushing her lips against her inner thigh. “Finest thing I’ve ever eaten.”

 

 Joanie threaded her fingers into Reggie’s hair and gave her head an encouraging tug. Reggie ran her hands up the backs of Joanie’s thighs to support her bum as Joanie spread her leg’s just enough for Reggie to nuzzle her face into her pussy.

 

 She was already soaking wet from the amount of times they had got one another off already. Reggie lapped it up, licking slowly around her clit before sucking on it. She glanced up at Joanie when her hand flexed in her hair, watching her breathing kick up when Reggie circled her tongue over her clit, first pressing hard, then using the lightest of touches, then pressing even harder.

 

“ _Ah,”_ Joanie gasped, free hand grabbing the headboard when Reggie licked her from her vagina to her clit in one long move. She flicked the end of her tongue over her clit, and then licked over her slower, sucking on her clit this time before pulling away to gasp in a breath.

 

 She squeezed Joanie’s ass, pressing kisses down her labia until she could roll her tongue over the entrance of her vagina. Joanie shuddered, her thighs tensing around Reggie’s head as her hips twitched down against her face.

 

 Reggie took one hand off of Joanie to reach down between her own leg’s. She could still feel Joanie’s clever fingers and her smooth, gentle tongue on her, and Reggie moaned when she rubbed over her own clit. The sound was muffled, of course, but Joanie still whined when she worked out where Reggie’s hand had gone.

 

“ _Oh God_ ,” she gasped, taking a sharp intake of breath when Reggie slipped her tongue into her. _“_ Oh _God_!”

 

 She worked her tongue in and out of Joanie until she felt her tense and then pulled back. Joanie tugged desperately at Reggie’s hair but she didn’t move, taking a few deep breaths while she worked out a kink in her jaw.

 

“ _Reg,”_ Joanie pleaded - demanded - and Reggie brushed her lips against her leg in apology. She kissed up the inside of her thigh, leaving a few teasing nips on her skin before nuzzling back into her pussy. She ran a series of kitten licks up one side of her labia to Joanie’s clit, running the flat of her tongue over it and then repeating the same on the other side. Reggie swirled her tongue over Joanie’s clit, pulling back when she felt her thighs tremble and licked over her whole pussy again before sucking on her clit.

 

 Joanie was chanting curses and pleas, gasps breaking and hitching in the middle as she rocked her hips, practically riding Reggie’s face. She abandoned her own pleasure to hold Joanie as still as she dared, swirling her aching tongue lazy all over her until she hit her clit, and then licked right into her pubic hair.

 

 She dropped her head back into Joanie’s hand for just a moment, looking over her flushed face and the disarray her curls were in. Joanie's tit’s were right there, still pink from Reggie’s earlier attentions, so Reggie reached up to grab one, rolling the soft weight against the palm of her hand as she went back to sucking and licking at her clit.

 

 Joanie cried out, arching her back before leaning her whole weight on the headboard, Reggie’s head being shoved firmly between her legs. Not that she minded that one bit. She let Joanie rest on the edge of her orgasm for as long as her jaw could take it, and then moved the hand that had been grabbing Joanie’s bum so she could push her fingers into her.

 

 She moaned through the first wave of her orgasm, only getting louder as the second and third one’s hit her, squeezing Reggie’s head with her thighs.

 

“Enough, enough, _enough_ ,” Joanie panted when Reggie kept on licking her, snorting at the disappointed noise Reggie let out even as she let Joanie slip off her face. “Your jaw must be hurting,” Joanie said gently, stroking her fingers along the bottom of Reggie’s face.

 

“Worth it,” Reggie said like she always did, grinning when Joanie blushed like she always did. She ran her hands up and down Joanie’s legs, swirling her fingers though the mess covering the inside of her thighs before pushing herself to sit up. She wrapped her arms around Joanie to stop her tipping backwards, trying to wipe her mouth on her shoulder before pressing her face into Joanie’s tits.

 

 Joanie laughed, which Reggie thought was the best sound in the world. She threaded her fingers through Reggie’s hair, gently easing her head back so she could kiss Reggie with a smile.

 

 

**

 

 Joanie smelt of fruity drinks, and tasted of them too when she gave Reggie a smacking kiss. “Come and dance with me!” She yelled over the din of the after party, arm thrown over Reggie’s shoulders.

 

“I was gonna go outside for some air,” Reggie shouted back, slipping Joanie’s fourth or sixth (Reggie had lost count) cocktail out of her hand.

 

“Well look’s like I’m going outside with my lady!” Joanie declared drunkenly. “Then I can…” she snorted, “shake my backside to the vibrations.”

 

 She let Reggie loop an arm around her waist and pull her through the crowd, dodging shoulder pads and mullets and _looks_ as they went.

 

“Oh wait. Jim!” Joanie called, falling out of Reggie’s hold to lean on him.

 

“Well hello there,” he smiled indulgently. “Someone’s having fun!”

 

“I’m trying!” Joanie giggled, “I gotta go outside with Reggie. But I’ll be back to dance with _you_ , handsome!”

 

“Can’t wait, gorgeous,” Jim was obviously amused, giving Reggie a wink and a smile as he handed Joanie back to her.

 

 The night wasn’t all that cold, but it was bright and fresh compared to the smoke and sweat clogged air inside. Reggie took a deep breath, shaking herself as a chill ran up her arms. Joanie slipped out of her hold and Reggie kept an eye on her as she shuffled across the almost deserted garden terrace to collapse back against the wall. 

 

“Okay?” Reggie asked, rolling her eyes when all she got was a silent thumbs up in reply.

 

 Reggie sauntered over to the low wall running around the terrace, peering down into the private lot that was full of all the fancy cars waiting to take people wherever they wanted to go. She sighed as she pulled out a cigarette, rubbing at her eyes while halfheartedly smoking it.  

 

“I’m tired,” Joanie muttered, the whining edge to her voice almost making Reggie smile.

 

“We can go back to the hotel?” Reggie offered, turning to let her eyes trail over the place where Joanie’s high waisted jeans skimmed the lower edge of her crop top.

 

“I’m tired of hotels,” Joanie huffed, pushing herself off the wall to come and leant next to Reggie, a lot more steady on her feet than she had been a minute ago. “And the parties and the tours and recording. And the parties. And promoting shit. And more parties. Oh! And the parties…”

 

“You go through the complimentary booze quickly enough.”

 

“How do you think I can stand it all,” Joanie leant her forehead on Reggie’s shoulder. “I’ve got to be drunk or I’d lose my mind with the dyke jokes and the looks and the _oh_ so original _wanna give my dick a try, doll’_ ,” she said, pitching her voice to copy any number of men who’d tried that on them since those photos had come out. “Why are we a joke?”

 

“People are arseholes,” Reggie muttered, clenching her fist on top of the wall as she tried to calm the anger that had been all too present over the past few months. Losing her temper and throwing things wouldn’t do any good except maybe make Reggie feel better, which was more than enough of a reason to do things sometimes.

 

 She turned to look at Joanie, pressing her face into her curls and breathing in the faint scent of hairspray and her perfume. “But we’re Queen. We’ll give them something else to talk about in no time at all,” she kissed her hair, catching up Joanie’s hand in hers. “I wish I could make you untouchable to all this,” she whispered. “I wish I could elevate you above all of this, and keep you safe and happy.”

 

 Joanie picked her head up and smiled at Reggie, exhaustion in every line of her beautiful face. “Then who would keep you safe and happy?”

 

“Freddie would pick up the slack, and Brian of course. Crystal…”

 

“They’re not your girlfriend. Who loves and cherishes you, and is going to sick by you no matter what people say. Or imply,” she gave Reggie’s hand a squeeze, laying her head back on her shoulder. “You take care of me, and I’ll take care of you, and we’ll be okay.” She was silent for a while then snorted, holding up their joined hands like she was making a proclamation. “So said the drunk thirty-two year old woman!”

 

 

* ***** *

 

**_The Music Industry in the echoing wake of Freddie Mercury’s tragic death_**

_**By, Isobel Yanley** _

_The Sunday Times, June 1994_

 

 

 Reggie dropped the magazine face down onto the dining room table, digging her nails into her palms as she tried to breathe through the well of emotion in her throat.

 

 She had spoken to the journalist for this piece, and Reggie had no doubts that she would treat them, and Freddie, gently. It was just that she was not yet used to seeing it stated so bluntly that he was gone. 

 

 There was a knot trying to form in her chest, trying to choke her with emotion, and it unravelled to nothing when a shriek from the garden caught her attention.

 

 Joanie was out there, greying hair up in a bun and dungarees rolled up to her knees as she chased their toddler around the lawn. She caught him, swinging him up into the air before dropping him, letting him get all the way to the sun bathing dog before swinging him up again.

 

 She was smiling as brightly as she had done before...well, _before._ But it was always difficult not to smile when Robert was beside himself like this, his deep little chuckles so wonderfully infectious.

 

 Reggie kicked off her shoes and slipped out of the patio doors, creeping over the grass to where Joanie was throwing him up into the air singing, “I got you. I got you. I got you”, much to Robert’s delight.

 

 Joanie didn’t notice Reggie until she was almost upon her. She caught Robert and held him to her chest just as Reggie grabbed her around her middle and hauled her off the ground. “I’ve got mummy! I’ve got mummy!”

 

“Reg!”

 

“I’ve got mummy!” Reggie laughed, kissing Joanie’s hair.

 

 Robert, as soon as he had heard Reggie, wiggled around in Joanie’s arms to find out what was going on. He pressed his little hands into Joanie’s shoulder so he could lean back enough to see them both, giggling as he watched Reggie attack Joanie with kisses. “Ma got mummy!” he declared.

 

“That’s right monkey, ma got mummy!” Reggie cooed, smacking a kiss to Joanie’s ear as she set her back on her feet.

 

 Robert considered his mum’s for a moment before squirming in delight. “Ma got mummy!” he yelled again, smashing his face into Joanie’s cheek with a loud kissy noise. Reggie did the same thing to Joanie’s neck, holding her tighter as Joanie’s laughter rang out bright and loud around the garden.

 

 

**

 

 Reggie sighed in contentment, stretching her arms out in front of her. She spread her fingers out, lining them up with the faint stars and planets in the sky, squinting in an attempt to work out which one was Mercury.

 

 Joanie shifted, her knee knocking into Reggie’s as she slung her leg over her thighs. Reggie dropped a hand on Joanie’s thigh, brushing her fingers up the seam of her dungarees as she continued to look up at the stars.

 

“What are you doing?” Joanie asked quietly.

 

“Just...just looking,” Reggie said, relaxing her fingers before dropping her hand onto her stomach.

 

“You should get your telescope out again. When we go to the Surrey house,” Joanie said, plucking a daisy from the lawn, taking a look at it, and then dropping it back into the grass. “Get B-Brian around to tell you what the stars are.”

 

“I can work it out! You got me that chart.”

 

 Joanie rested her chin on Reggie’s chest, the warm light from the open patio door’s catching on her soft cheek and each lovely crinkle around her eyes when she smiled. “Robbie got you that chart, I think you’ll find.”

 

 Reggie glanced at the baby monitor plugged into the extension cord, and smiled. “He gives the best Christmas presents,” she picked up her head to kiss Joanie on the nose. “Which is only right, as he’s the second best thing that’s ever happened to me. Equal tied for love of my life.”

 

 Joanie brushed her fingertips over Reggie’s cheek. “I don’t think I’ve been very deserving of that over the past couple of years,” Joanie said quietly, looping her arm around Reggie as she settled back down against her.

 

“You are always deserving of it,” Reggie said with a little more harshness than she meant, running her hand between Joanie’s shoulder blades to try and soften it. “You were there for me as much as you could be. More than you should have, sometimes."  They had thought Freddie would have been able to meet their baby, but they'd not had as much time as they had thought. Reggie remembered Joanie, weak with exhaustion and weeping with bittersweet happiness as she held their newborn, still reaching out to comfort Reggie despite the fact she had just given birth. "I appreciate that", Reggie said as she tightened her hold on Joanie. "And you. So much. And I’ll keep telling you that until you accept it.”

 

“I know.”

 

“You’re doing better now. We’re all doing better now. And that’s all that matters.”

 

 Joanie was silent for while, and then sat up so she could look down at Reggie. She stroked her hair back off her forehead, a smile pulling at her lips as she cupped Reggie's cheek. “I love you.”

 

 Reggie cocked an eyebrow, knowing that despite her own grey hairs and wrinkles she still had that twinkle in her eye. “Well, that definitely matter’s a whole lot, too.”

 

 Joanie rolled her eyes, grinning as she bent to kiss the, “I love you too”, off of Reggie’s lips.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reggie's 80's hair is like [this](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/hbz-stevie-nicks-1982-gettyimages-515220198-1497455916.jpg) (yes it's stevie nicks yes i love her)  
> Joanie's 80's hair is like [this](https://hips.hearstapps.com/cosmouk.cdnds.net/16/17/1600x2392/1461581387-1461277215-1986-molly-ringwald.jpg?resize=768:*) but longer.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has commented, and read, and liked, and asked me stuff on my blog (love being asked shit). I hope to come back to the Laydees, but for my next trick I'm going back into Brighter Sun's universe with smth yous lot have been asking me for...
> 
>  
> 
> (I don't know if the Indianapolis Star is a newspaper who would even interview Queen, let alone get outraged like that. I am but a Brit with Google. If you know of a more suitable newspaper hit me up)
> 
>  


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